The President Felice Barela intervened at the start of the international cooperation project under the UCBM, Elis, Palestinian Ministry of Health and Italian Cooperation
13 February 2018 – He spoke of health as a “growth driver” Felice Barela, President UCBM, in his speech at the Conference on Breast Unit Cancer, in Bethlehem on 12 and 13 February 2018. “Only a healthy population can reach its full potential, including social and economic. Health has a positive impact on a country's productivity and competitiveness, and actions to reduce health inequalities are key to inclusive growth,” he argued.
The conference represents the official start of the Joint Technical Group Italian-Palestinian created for the direction and for the technical and scientific supervision of the first multidisciplinary breast center in Palestine. A project of international cooperation of the NGO ELIS with the support of the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and the involvement of doctors from the Breast Unit of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital. “We are happy to contribute to finding and applying innovative solutions to improve the quality, efficiency and sustainability of your health system,” said Barela in the presence of the Minister of Health of the Palestinian National Authority and representatives of the institutions involved.
The President led the delegation UCBM on a mission to Bethlehem together with prof. Vittorio Altomare, responsible for the project and director of the Breast Unit of the University Hospital, and in which other specialists also took part UCBM: Claudio Buoni, radiologist and president of the Ethics Committee; Giuseppe Perrone, anatomopathologist; Antonella Grasso, breast specialist; Annalisa Cogliandro, plastic surgeon; Matteo Sammarra, radiologist. The breast operational unit in fact involves the collaboration between various professional figures who can take care of the patient throughout the entire treatment process: from diagnosis to surgery, as well as post-operative care paths and prevention in risk groups. Currently, in the West Bank, cancer is the direct cause of approximately 13,7% of total deaths and breast cancer is the most frequent neoplasm, with a percentage of cases equal to 16,9% of the total.
"The working group – he explained Vittorio Altomare - meets periodically for guidance and technical and scientific supervision. We have developed a program of distance learning and joint research on the local characteristics of the main breast pathologies and prevention and screening campaigns will be organized for Palestinian women who today, in order to treat any breast cancer, are forced to turn to different hospitals even outside Palestine, with little coordination of care". The goal - he added - "is that these patients have the hope of being able to reach, by 2020, a recovery rate comparable to that of European women in terms of life expectancy".
