Strengthening Territorial Healthcare and Digital Transformation in Italy’s National Health System: Insights from an Interview with Professor Pierpaolo Sileri
Review Article
Article Title: Strengthening Territorial Healthcare and Digital Transformation in Italy’s National Health System: Insights from an Interview with Professor Pierpaolo Sileri
The COVID-19 pandemic represented the starting point for an internal debate on the structural weaknesses of Italy’s territorial healthcare system and the urgent need for long-awaited reforms. It provided a unique opportunity to reshape the Italian National Health System (NHS), shifting toward more localized care models and accelerating the adoption of digital health technologies. This article is based on an interview conducted by the author, Matteo Maria Cati, with Professor Pierpaolo Sileri, former Deputy Minister and Undersecretary of State for Health, who shares grounded perspectives on how the country’s healthcare reforms have taken shape, especially in relation to the rollout of Community Health Centers (Case della Comunità) and the evolving integration of telemedicine. The findings and insights gained from this interview provide an in-depth analysis of key barriers and opportunities in the implementation of healthcare reforms, particularly addressing the uneven healthcare workforce distribution across regions. The article further explores how digital health tools could help reduce these longstanding disparities. Special attention is given to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), funded through the European Union’s Next Generation EU program, which is acting as a key driver in modernizing Italy’s healthcare infrastructure (Notarnicola, et al. [1]).