The Festival is the result of fifteen years of close collaboration with the Tuscany Region with single and multiple editions in Viareggio, Pietrasanta, Montecatini and Siena, home of the 2022 Festival, in its fifteenth edition. The choice of Siena is not accidental: the city, in addition to being home to two universities and one of the three university hospitals in the region, is also a highly specialized place and a pool of companies working in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, research and in diagnostics. It also houses a single institution, such as Toscana Life Sciences, created to help research activity and encourage the creation of innovative companies, the pride of all of Tuscany and a determining factor in the choice of Siena as the site of the soon-to-be-created national Biotechnopole.
“The festival– explains Paolo Amabile of the Good Event of Bologna, historic artistic director of the event organized by the Eventi Diversi association – is structured as a ‘public service’ to give citizens immediate answers with free screenings, including mammography, and provide health prevention training programs for adults but also for secondary school students”.
“This event represents a point of reference in Tuscany to explore issues related to health, starting from prevention and training – underlines the president of Tuscany, Eugene Giani – The right to health is one of the main objectives that the Constitution proposes to us and in Tuscany we have always aimed at excellent healthcare. In Siena, which also hosts this edition, a synergy is created between care, investments in the area with the Pnrr and at the same time a great research capacity”.
“The festival – reiterates the health commissioner, Simone Bezzini – is a very important appointment for Tuscany. This edition, after the Covid period, however, is particularly important not only to relate the skills, professionalism and authoritative speakers who will participate in the various sessions but above all to create a moment of relationship between the world of healthcare and citizens. The Health Festival has this as a particular feature compared to other appointments”. “It will be an opportunity – adds the councilor – also to make known the situation of the health system and the new projects that are being worked on and to highlight the very important opportunities, for the territory and the region, which refer to the Biotechnopole and the Center national for the pandemics that will arise in Siena: opportunities also in terms of economic and employment growth”.
The Health Festival kicks off on the morning of November 24th with a visit, aimed at students, companies and places in the area where science, research and innovation in health are worked: first the Toscana Life Sciences pole, then the Siena Artificial Intelligences Hub, a reality designed to build a network between companies, the world of research and centers of excellence, and therefore to VisMederi, an innovative SME of applied research and qualified services. In the afternoon, from 2 to 5 pm at Palazzo Patrizi, we talk about medicine and spirituality, different approaches depending on the faith professed by the patient. The focus in the TV room of the San Niccolò university campus, from 4 to 5.30 pm, will instead be dedicated to transplants: Tuscany as a national model. The day ends with the presentation of the book by Matteo Bassetti “The world is made up of microbes”.
Initiatives for schools too on November 25: Also present was the regional councilor for education Alessandra Nardini, speaking of ITS and in particular of the higher technical institute on life sciences, a course of study that students can choose after the final exam: followed by the presentation of book “The War of Vaccines” by Paolo Leoncini and Paolo Neri. In the TV room of San Niccolò the focus, from 9.30 to 11.30, is dedicated to the psychology of work, while from 10 to 13 at the Academy of Physiocrats the topic is digital health, what is already possible and what will be in the future , thanks also to the investments for innovation financed with the Pnrr. The day continues with meetings on the language of young people and listening to adolescents, a scenic conference on the pandemic on TV and in the cinema, the impact on lifestyles and prevention of talk shows dedicated to health and health comics.
The afternoon appointment, from 5 to 7 pm at the Accademia Chigiana, to which the new health minister Orazio Schillaci has also been invited, is dedicated to the role and contribution of Siena in the health of the future.
Saturday 26 November alle Scotte from 8.30 to 13.30 women who wish can undergo a free breast screening: (reservations from 21 to 25 November by calling the toll-free number 800.180.992). Space will also be given to Western acupuncture, health technologies and public service companies for the people of the district, food and nutrition, the future of paediatrics and communication.
In a decidedly eventful day, a meeting dedicated to citizens and volunteers and their contribution to improving health services and nursing assistance is also scheduled, followed by the presentation of a book on the history of the Santa Maria della Scala hospital. Again on Saturdays at San Niccolò there are seminars on non-communicable chronic diseases, blood collection and gender medicine (from 5.15pm to 6pm). The day ends with an event dedicated to the accessible environment and inclusive society scheduled from 5 to 7 pm at the Accademia dei Fisiocratici.
Sunday 27 November in the square of the railway station will be transformed into a health village with the presence of Civil Protection, the Italian Red Cross, Anpas, Iapb, Avis and Fratres and the possibility, throughout the morning from 9.30 to 13, to be able to undergo a series of free visits: dermatological and cardiological, metabolic and ophthalmological for the prevention of glaucoma, but also advice and information on the value of donations. From Florence, in collaboration with Trenitalia, the health train arrives. For the grand finale there is the show: on stage the rock group of Liceo Piccolimini and the dance performance under the supervision of two of the judges of “Dancing with the Stars”, the journalist Ivan Zazzaroni and the dancer and choreographer Carolyn Smith. There is also the councilor for health of Tuscany, Simone Bezzini.