The Bank with Biomedical University Foundation supports the return to Italy of the President of the European Society of Biomedical Engineering Leandro Pecchia
THEUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma with the support of Intesa Sanpaolo brings back to Italy one of the most influential biomedical engineers in the world: Prof. Leandro Pecchia, President of the European Society of Biomedical Engineering (EAMBES), Secretary General of the World Association (IFMBE), WHO advisor for technologies for Covid-19 and member of the CTS of the Ministry of Health for medical devices. After a long experience in the United Kingdom at the universities of Sheffield, Nottingham and Warwick, prof. Pecchia will be lecturer in electronic and computer bioengineering in the Departmental Faculty of Engineering UCBM and will direct the new Research Unit in “Intelligent Health Technology”, thanks to the collaboration between the Biomedical University Foundation and Intesa Sanpaolo.
Today, on the occasion of the assignment ceremony for the new role, Prof. Leandro Pecchia gave a keynote speech on how the global biomedical engineering community works closely with NGOs and the United Nations to reduce the gap between high-income and low- and middle-income countries in access to essential health services: according to the WHO, at least half of the world's population does not have access to essential health services. In order to facilitate the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the community works to "Ensure health and well-being for all and for all ages" (goal number 3 of the 2030 Agenda) all over the world. With specific reference to sub-Saharan Africa, the professor recounted concrete experiences of field work and how these experiences have been extremely useful for tackling the pandemic even in high-income regions, such as Europe and the United States. "The pandemic has shown that working in low-income contexts prepares us to face challenges and emergencies even in high-income ones – underlined the professor – like feats like the moon landing, which have pushed engineering to levels not even imaginable, if you don't leave your comfort zone. In my role as innovation manager for Covid-19 in the WHO emergencies department, I have often benefited from the experience gained in Africa, where resources are always limited and it is necessary to find safe and effective solutions even if the supply chain fails. The cooperation between the global community of biomedical engineers and the WHO has rapidly produced procedures, technical guides, guidelines for the production and selection of essential products such as respirators, surgical masks and medical devices, as well as frugal protocols for measuring health environments in the absence of expensive equipment. Now that the pandemic is slowing down, we need to consolidate these experiences to be ready for future challenges that will go beyond the clinical dimension alone. Just think of those of climate change that now require us to work on the environmental impact of medical devices and hospitals".
During the meeting there were: Carlo Tosti, President UCBM, Federica Marchini, Councilor of the Biomedical University Foundation, Elisa Zscopio Marsala, Head of Social Enhancements and Relations with Intesa Sanpaolo Universities, Eugenio Guglielmelli, Rector UCBM, Claudia Peverini, Program Director Department of Engineering University of Cambridge e Andrea Rossi, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager UCBM. "The University, together with Intesa Sanpaolo, has carried out many initiatives that we are pursuing. Among the most important: support for the excellence scholarships of our students, the planning of the Bootcamp, a bridge between companies and universities, as well as the great initiative during the pandemic in support of our University Hospital. – added the Chief Executive Officer - Our collaboration is a concrete sign of wanting to take care of the community and expresses the social contribution of Intesa Sanpaolo, a bank that wants to be at the side of students and professionals, as well as companies and citizens in general. With this in mind, we are working on initiatives of a scientific, social and cultural nature that we want to carry out together and which I hope we will be able to announce in greater detail soon in a future event".
In fact, the synergy with is wider UCBM in Intesa Sanpaolo's ESG commitment which, through the structure Enhancements of the Social and Relations with the Universities led by Elisa ZAMBI Marsala, promotes - in line with the strategic agenda for EU research and the fourth mission of the PNRR - collaborations with universities and schools through support for research, scholarships, teaching to promote educational inclusion, the enhancement of merit, the attractiveness of universities and contribute to the economic and social growth of the territories and the country.
