Health Sciences

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale degree program and is intended for advanced level students. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor. The program focuses on the protection of healthcare in the European Union and most notably covers the following topics:

• the major constitutional and political issues underlying this subject;
• the competences of the EU in the field of healthcare and the increasing role of the One Health approach in the EU;
• healthcare as an economic freedom;
• healthcare as a fundamental right;
• healthcare as a sectoral policy of the European Union: governance, institutional actors and regulatory framework;
• the case law of the Court of Justice on health services and access to cross-border healthcare; the pharmaceutical and medical devices market;
• the digitization of healthcare systems (e.g., e-Health, m-Health, Artificial Intelligence, and European Health Data Space);
• preparedness and response planning in the event of serious cross-border health threats: the Union’s response to COVID-19.

At the end of the course unit, students: possess an in-depth knowledge about the supranational legal mechanisms concerning health, with an emphasis on patient mobility and the cooperation between Member States to face transboundary health crises; can figure out (and solve) problems affecting the transboundary development of health policies at the European level, especially the provision of health services, and are capable to assess the abovementioned mechanisms in the framework of the applicable international legal regime, in particular the World Health Organization.

Coming soon.

Prerequisites: The student must be confident with the knowledge regarding the following topics: human anatomy, physiology, and general mechanisms of diseases. 

At the end of the course, the student will be able to take the patient history, perform the physical examination, formulate the diagnostic hypotheses and set up an appropriate diagnostic-therapeutic procedure for patients suffering from thoracic diseases, endocrine glands, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, anus, liver, pancreas, spleen, abdomen, peritoneum, skin, soft parts and breast, as reported in the program in full. 

Course topics include: Introduction to surgery (surgical risk, complications); Shock (classification, management principles); Infections of surgical interest; Benign and malignant diseases of the esophagus (including principles of surgical therapy); Benign and malignant diseases of the stomach (including principles of surgical therapy); Benign and malignant diseases of the small intestine (including principles of surgical therapy); Benign and malignant colorectal diseases (including principles of surgical therapy); Proctology (including principles of surgical therapy); Benign and malignant diseases of the liver and biliary tract (including principles of surgical therapy); Benign and malignant diseases of the pancreas (including principles of surgical therapy); Hernias of the abdominal wall and incisional hernia (including principles of surgical therapy); Diseases of the diaphragm (including principles of surgical therapy); Skin cancers (including principles of surgical therapy); Benign and malignant breast diseases (including principles of surgical therapy); Soft tissue tumors (including principles of surgical therapy); Tumors of the peritoneum (including principles of surgical therapy); Endocrine surgery (including principles of surgical therapy); Diseases of the mediastinum (including principles of surgical therapy); Lung tumors (including principles of surgical therapy); Acute abdomen (general framework, etiology, management principles); Diseases of the spleen (benign and malignant); Traumatology (general framework, management principles); Transplantation; Bariatric surgery; Vascular surgery; Critical care medicine; Plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Coming soon.

The course is to understand how evolutionary principles can help us to better explain health and disease.  Why do we get sick? Why are pregnancies complicated? Why do we grow old? Why do infectious diseases have a disproportionate effect in men and women? These fascinating questions are the core of evolutionary medicine. Through case studies, students explore contemporary issues in health and disease –ones that we confront on a regular basis– and ask how evolutionary concepts –e.g., life history theory, cooperation and conflict, constraints and trade-offs, coevolution– help us to understand, mitigate, or combat those issues. 

This course will help students to 1. Understand the origin, development, clinical application and dominant diseases of acupuncture and moxibustion; 2. Be familiar with the experimental progress and scientific research of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of pain, mental disorders, reproductive metabolic diseases, degenerative diseases, bone and joint diseases, etc.