In conjunction with the Italian government and Civico Hospital and Cervella Hospital in Palermo, Italy, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is bringing specialized services such as liver transplantation to southern Italy and Sicily.
The Mediterranean Institute for Transplantation and Advanced Specialized Therapies (ISMETT—the acronym for the institute's Italian-language name) has been established "through the largest international public/private partnership ever undertaken by a U.S. academic medical center," UPMC said. ISMETT is expected to become the first center in southern Italy capable of transplanting all organs.
"In addition to liver transplantation and other treatments for liver diseases, ISMETT will expand the kidney transplant service at Civico Hospital and eventually offer transplants of other organs and provide advanced cardiology, oncology, and orthopedic care," UPMC said.
UPMC is managing the facility as it would an American medical center, and it is overseeing the clinical training and educational aspects of the program. To date, 37 Italian nurses and 12 physicians have been trained in Pittsburgh. The institute will have a paperless medical record system and a telepathology link with UPMC.
UPMC also is planning to work with the Sicilian organ procurement agency to increase donation rates, which UPMC said are among the worst in Europe.
The program is being temporarily based at Civico Hospital, and construction has begun on a new 72-bed facility that is expected to be completed in about two years.
For Your Information:
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center press release
http://www.upmc.edu/NewsBureau/ismett.htm
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