San Raffaele takes over the Presidency of EUHA for the next 6 months

Last Friday 14 June the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital in Milan took over the Presidency of the European University Hospital Alliance (EUHA) during the Members' Assembly held in Stockholm. In fact, the Assembly will be chaired for the next six months by Dr. Anna Flavia d'Amelio Einaudi, Research Director of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital and Managing Director of the Vita -Salute San Raffaele University, who will have the task of oversee the Alliance's shared health and political agenda.

EUHA is a European organization established in 2017. It comprises ten leading European university hospitals, with Ospedale San Raffaele - Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele among the founders, that collaborate to enhance university hospital care for both patients and healthcare professionals.  

The ten EUHA members are Aarhus Universitetshospital, Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, UZ Leuven, King's Health Partners, Ospedale San Raffaele – Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Erasmus MC Universitätsklinikum, AKH Wien Medizinische Universität Wien, Karolinska Universitetssjukhuset, AP-HP Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris.

University hospitals in Europe play a unique role in the healthcare system by providing care, conducting research, and offering education. They often encounter similar challenges: the EUHA facilitates knowledge exchange and offers a shared platform to influence decision-makers, industry, and other stakeholders. In fact, numerous projects were born from the collaboration between EUHA members, which were then financed at European level, such as JOIN4ATMP, H20, EU-PEARL, HTA e PIPPI. Collectively, the EUHA's member hospitals employ over 220,000 people, undertake more than 300 funded research and development projects, and conduct over 6,000 clinical studies. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, these ten university hospitals have supported and learned from each other, creating forums for discussion among various occupational groups.

EUHA is dedicated to:  

• fostering sustainable healthcare ecosystems across Europe with the goal to ensure the highest quality of care while optimizing available resources;
• promoting excellence and innovation in healthcare, research, and education through knowledge exchange and collaboration;
• advocating for the pivotal role of university hospitals in health systems, influencing policy, and engaging with stakeholders.

The EUHA university hospitals, also exchange personnel: for example, Dr Luz Uria Oficialdegui from Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus spent 9 months at IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital working in the team of professor Alessandro Aiuti, acquiring a higher level of specialization in the field of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs), a class of innovative treatments that encompass gene therapy, cell therapy, and tissue-engineered products. EUCARE is an EUHA-driven, ERASMUS+ funded, fellowship programme that will foster the exchange of personnel and essential knowledge among critical care nurses within EUHA hospitals.

Our hospital and our university are a consolidated reality in the world of biomedical research, with a focus on topics that are proving to be increasingly essential for the development of what is considered the medicine of the future, namely precision, preventive and healing medicine. Presiding over the European University Hospital Alliance, in addition to being a privilege, certifies that our value is internationally recognized. In some fields, our scientific research has been pioneering, paving the way for a safe and completely innovative clinical application of cutting-edge therapeutic tools. However, let's not forget prevention, as demonstrated by our commitment to the study of neurodegenerative diseases, to better understand and combat the phenomenon of aging in its dual role as cause and consequence of disease states. We have always believed in scientific research based on the comparison of knowledge as the engine of its development. This is why EUHA for us represents a real accelerator of the health policy of which we would like to be interpreters

concludes Anna Flavia d'Amelio Einaudi, Research Director of the IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital and Managing Director of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University.

_{Cover: Photo©️Fredric Möller Eklund}