UPMC Highlights ‘International Health Care Highway’ at the Fourth World Health Care Congress in Berlin

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s (UPMC) efforts to build an innovative “international medical and academic highway” will be featured on March 10 in presentations at the fourth annual World Health Care Congress Europe in Berlin.

Charles Bogosta, president of UPMC’s International and Commercial Services Division, and Bruno Gridelli, M.D., medical and scientific director at Istituto Mediterraneo per i Trapianti e Terapie ad Alta Specializzazione (ISMETT), UPMC’s transplantation center in Palermo, Italy, will discuss the medical center’s efforts to create a global health care network to efficiently provide high-quality patient care and services wherever UPMC operates.

“Our goal is to create an international medical and academic highway that brings together the world’s leading scientists and health care professionals in a global environment of collaboration,” said Mr. Bogosta, who noted that UPMC expects to hire an additional 300 employees overseas in the next 18 months. “By sharing best practices around the world, supported by experienced managers on the ground, we believe that we and our partners can significantly improve the quality and effectiveness of health care for all of our patients.”

One of the leading integrated health care enterprises in the United States, UPMC has managed the transplant facility in Italy, in partnership with the Italian government, for more than a decade. ISMETT’s surgeons have performed more than 700 organ transplantations and achieved among the highest survival rates for patients in Europe.

UPMC’s rapidly expanding international portfolio also includes management of the private Beacon Hospital and two cancer centers in Ireland, emergency medical services in Qatar and a technology project in the United Kingdom.

Dr. Gridelli, who also is medical and scientific director for UPMC’s International and Commercial Services Division, will discuss some of the tools needed to create this international highway, including educational, managerial and technological best practices.

“ISMETT has brought to Sicily UPMC’s excellence in transplantation and treatments for complex disease. Around this model of patient care, a center for education and research has grown and is contributing to the expansion of the international network of academic medicine based on UPMC’s experience,” said Dr. Gridelli. “Advanced technologies, sharing of knowledge and experience, and adaptability to the local environment and culture are the key factors in these successful international initiatives.”

More than 600 health leaders are expected to attend the World Health Care Congress Europe to share successful initiatives for improved care delivery and outcomes in Europe. Participants will include health ministers, hospital directors, technology innovators and health care industry suppliers.