AI, drugs, the NHS in crisis and longevity: the future of health at the crossroads

It has become the number one concern of Italians even more than work and international tensions. With an ageing population that sees the cradles in our country gradually emptying, health is increasingly becoming the most coveted primary good throughout life, a goal that cannot be taken for granted, because while Italia has just confirmed that it has the longest life expectancy in Europe (84.1 years), this record does not automatically translate into years in good health, especially in the last few years.

This is why, for example, the challenge of longevity and better living is one of the topics at the centre of the debate also because of all its economic and social consequences: because a population that lives long but lives with more pathologies and disabilities can have an enormous impact on welfare and the sustainability of our National Health Service. These are themes that cut across the various appointments scheduled at the Trento Festival of Economics, where, with the participation of Health Minister Orazio Schillaci, the old and new emergencies of our SSN will be tackled: from waiting lists, which remain the number one enemy of patients - the national platform desired by Schillaci, which will provide the waiting times for each service, will soon be on line - to the need to stem the flight of doctors and nurses from public hospitals. The issue of health personnel and their shortage is also one of the main issues for the take-off of the new territorial health service: the one financed by the NRP, which has earmarked, for example, two billion lire to open the new Community Homes and one billion lire for Community Hospitals, facilities that should help decongest emergency rooms and hospitals by ensuring low-intensity visits, examinations and hospital stays for the elderly and chronic patients. A challenge within a challenge, given that filling them with doctors and nurses is an almost impossible mission, which is why Schillaci himself is currently trying to bring about a difficult reform of family doctors so as to make them work as a team, preferably within the Community Hospitals.

But drugs also play a key role in ensuring health, where therapeutic innovations are increasingly making a difference, but the ongoing turmoil with the United States with Trump pushing to lower drug prices at home to the level of those in Europe risks triggering a real 'drug war'.

Not to mention the impact of artificial intelligence in the world of health and healthcare: AI is already a reality in hospital wards, especially as an aid in latest-generation diagnostics, and is also gaining a foothold in doctors' offices, but above all it is increasingly being questioned by patients thanks to the advent of tools such as ChatGpt Health. How will all this change the relationship between doctor and patient? This too will be answered in Trento.

THURSDAY 21 MAY