La Medicina dei Disastri nelle Università Italiane: situazione attuale, esperienze di formazione in essere, sviluppi futuri

[Machine translation] In the last years, the number of disasters has increased due to the population growth, progressive urbanisation, climate changes, armed conflicts and terrorist attacks. With ear-thquakes and floods, Italy is one of the European countries at greater risk for natural disasters. The leading role of physicians during disaster response is emphasised by the Art. 9 of the Italian Code of Medical Ethics and by the fact that the National Health System is an operational sector of the Italian Civil Protection mechanism. Several studies pointed out that, despite the significant interest of physicians and medical students in Disaster Medicine, most of them have never been exposed to a specific educational process. Other studies revealed an important lack in both Italian health response capacity and professional training. CRIMEDIM and SISM developed an innovative nationwide project to educate Italian medical students about the importance of Disaster Medicine, reaching more than 1600 individuals in 37 different medical schools. We strongly believe that the accreditation of Disaster Medicine as an academic discipline, the development of a specific curriculum within medical schools and the diffusion of the culture of prevention and disaster risk reduction are fundamental steps to protect people’s health and minimize the impact of disasters.