Telemedicine in Italy: Healthcare authorization profiles in the modern medico-legal reading.

Background: The ruling n. 38485, 20 June 2019, of the Italian Supreme Court, III criminal section, addressed by the perspective of the law the very sensitive and new issue of telemedicine.

Objective: This commentary deals with the issue of authorization of telemedicine activities by the health authority, starting from the Italian Court of Criminal Cassation, III section, decision n.

Nursing home case-mix instruments: validation of the RUG-III system in Italy.

Background And Aims: The current Italian reimbursement system for long-term care does not adequately consider the great variability in the health and functional status of older persons who are admitted to long-term care institutions. Furthermore, no procedure is implemented to monitor the quality of care provided to older residents. We conducted this study to verify whether the RUG-III (Resource Utilization Groups-version III), a tool for assessing the case-mix of nursing home residents, which is widely used in the United States and in many European countries, can be effectively used in the Italian health care system.

Is there a future for clinical laboratories? Experience in the Marche Region, Italy.

The government of the Marche Region has approved an Act called the "Regional Health Plan" establishing rules for the organization and development of healthcare. The main aim of the general plan is to rationalize the activities of medical laboratories first by making up an inventory of existing facilities and tests performed, and by classifying laboratories on the basis of their specialization and the complexity of tests that they perform.Moreover, the possible role of point-of-care testing and the need for clinical advice by laboratory professionals has also been debated.