Impact of austerity programs: Evidence from the Italian national health service.

Austerity measures are widely adopted to cope with financial straits. Since 2007 Italy has operated a financial recovery program ( PdR) in certain regions of the country. This provides an interesting setting for an intra-national analysis of the differences between the regions under a PdR program and those which are not.

The Next Step Toward Patient-Centeredness in Multidisciplinary Cancer Team Meetings: An Interview Study with Professionals.

Background: Patient-centeredness is essential in complex oncological multidisciplinary team decision-making. Improvement seems to be needed, while there is a lack of knowledge about health care providers' needs for improvement.

Objective: To explore multidisciplinary team members' perspectives on the need to improve patient-centeredness in complex decision-making, and subsequently the strategies to enhance it.

Prospective, multicenter demographic and epidemiological study on vernal keratoconjunctivitis: a glimpse of ocular surface in Italian population.

Purpose: To evaluate the frequency and epidemiological features of vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) in Italy.

Methods: a specific electronic clinical chart for vernal keratoconjunctivitis was created to standardize: 1) medical history; 2) diagnostic criteria; 3) signs and symptoms; and 4) treatments. This study involved 6 Italian referral centers for ocular surface diseases: between March 2005 and March 2006, all referred patients were included, clinical data collected and statistically examined.