Fondazione Roma operates in the Health sector both through its private projects and by fostering activities in line with its goals and quality standards.
One of the first private projects was the Hospice, which has been a centre of excellence in the field of palliative care since 1999. This health and social care facility guarantees inpatient care for people with a short life expectancy and provides home care to patients affected with Cancer, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease completely free of charge.
In many respects, Villaggio Emanuele is one of the Foundation’s most innovative and challenging private projects. This residential facility was built ex novo in the Bufalotta neighbourhood in Rome, upon the initiative of the then Chairman, Professor Emanuele. The entire Village is designed and devoted to people with Alzheimer’s disease and is the first in Italy to faithfully reproduce the Hogeweyk model successfully experimented the Netherlands, in Weesp near Amsterdam, in order to offer those with this serious disease, completely free of charge, an environment capable of improving their quality of life in a stimulating, safe and heartening setting, in which to reproduce their familiar lifestyles and live as normal as possible, thereby ensuring an alternative approach to traditional care so as to maintain the residual cognitive abilities of each resident for as long and as effectively possible.
With the aim of improving both the quality and the quantity of the health services provided to citizens in the field of prevention, diagnosis and care, the Foundation also supports public and private non-profit hospitals and healthcare facilities situated in the local area (the provinces of Rome, Frosinone and Latina) through grants, which to date amount to over thirty-seven million euro. Modern healthcare technologies may be purchased with the grants issued by the Foundation to facilities such as the Local Health Services, General Hospitals, University Polyclinics and Research Hospitals.
The realisation of CEMAD (Centro Malattie dell’Apparato Digerente) at Policlinico A. Gemelli in Rome, appears amongst the many projects that have benefitted from contributions issued by Fondazione Roma, due to its potential in terms of positive prospects, both on the diagnostic and therapeutic fronts. The project aims to create a centre of excellence for the diagnosis and treatment of digestive system diseases, which are amongst the leading causes of death and morbidity and mortality of the Italian population, and provide patient –centred care. The design and operation of this project is quite complex. The project has now reached the second stage, which includes the construction of eight outpatient consulting rooms, a hybrid operating theatre that aims to combine endoscopy with endoscopic ultrasound advanced radiological equipment and a series of supporting rooms. Once completed, CEMAD will be a centre of excellence both for diagnostics and the treatment of digestive system diseases and will allow users of the Italian National Health Services to face the most serious acute and chronic diseases more efficiently, reducing diagnosis and treatment time, which currently require repeated admission even in different rooms of the hospital. Moreover, due to the Foundation’s contribution, the Santa Maria Goretti Hospital in Latina will be provided with cutting edge equipment such as 3 Tesla MRI/PET and a Force CT scanner and a new hybrid operating theatre, which will allow the hospital to improve the quality of services rendered.