CERGAS Seminar "The National Centre for Screening Monitoring (ONS): a network to support cancer screening governance."

Organized cancer screening programs are complex care pathways, governed as National Benefit Packages (so called Essential Levels of Care-LEA) and, with regard to breast, cervical, and colorectal screening, by the Prime Ministerial Decree (DPCM) of January 12, 2017. The Regions are responsible for providing these services through their Local Health Authorities, which in turn may involve other public entities (University Hospitals, Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospitalization and Healthcare - IRCCS), accredited private entities, and Third Sector organizations.
Considering the first national provisions on early diagnosis at the end of the last century and the decentralization of the national health system, in the early 2000s the Center for the Study and Prevention of Cancer (CSPO, now ISPRO), in agreement with the Italian League for the Fight against Cancer (LILT), established a technical body called the National Observatory for the Prevention of Female Cancer Screening Programs. Its specific objective was to monitor their progress through specific indicators. From the beginning, this activity was carried out in collaboration with GISMa and GISCi, the scientific societies in the field, and involved the Regions that had started implementing female cancer screenings since the 1990s.
With the new regulations expanding early diagnosis to colorectal cancer, the monitoring body evolved into the National Centre to Screening Monitoring (ONS), based at CSPO. It became a support body for both the Ministry of Health and the Regions, not only for monitoring but also for defining guidelines and supporting the development of National Health Plans, National Prevention Plans and National Cancer Plans.
Over time, the functions of the ONS expanded, working closely with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCM) of the Ministry of Health, which was also established in the early 2000s too. Several initiatives, supported by specific national funding, were launched to mitigate the disparities in the provision of screening services between the North and South of the country. These included mechanisms such as mentorship by more advanced Regions toward those facing greater difficulties.
Despite these efforts, geographic differences persist, although, after the decline observed in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a gradual improvement in the delivery of these services. The ONS itself underwent changes: to address the enormous challenges imposed by the pandemic, a Steering Committee composed of representatives from all Regions was established to coordinate and share the actions to be taken, seeking to avoid exacerbating existing disparities.
On February 13 of this year, the State-Regions Conference approved — fourteen years after an initial proposal included in the Ministerial Decree of October 31, 2011 — the New Institutional Structure of ONS. This structure is more solid and coordinated, designed to support initiatives at both the national and European levels, with a clear definition of the necessary funding.

Speaker:

Paola Mantellini is an oncologist and gastroenterologist leading the Screening and Secondary Prevention Unit at the Oncological network, prevention and research Institute (ISPRO) Florence, Italy. Within the Unit she coordinates the activities for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening of the Florence District. Currently, she is the Coordinator of the National Centre for Screening Monitoring and the coordinator of the Screening Tuscany Reference Centre. She is also a member of the national monitoring group of the National Cancer Plan and of the National Health Equity Plan.

Link zoom: https://unibocconi-it.zoom.us/j/95244605176?pwd=dQ9MHPlPz1kyIq3gSowbaHLB9aaYOs.1

Meeting ID: 952 4460 5176

Passcode: 789374

Lunch at the end of the meeting: for those willing to participate in person, click here before the 30th of May.

Note. The presentation will be in Italian.