Report of a 2-year Fellowship in Milan: Introduction to the Italian Healthcare System and What I Learned at San Raffaele Hospital

Abstract

I experienced a 2-year fellowship in the Laboratory of Echocardiography at San Raffaele Hospital, which is recognized as a leading centre in the world for treatment of coronary artery and structural heart disease. In this report, I will describe the Italian healthcare system, which is unfamiliar to most Japanese people. Italy’s indicators of health system outcomes and high standard of medical care are impressive. Life expectancy is the fifth highest among ‘Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’ (OECD) countries. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) regarded Italy’s healthcare system as the second best in the world in 2000. However, there are some concerns that need to be addressed.
In the second part of this report, I will discuss the Cardio-Thoracic-Vascular Department of San Raffaele Hospital and describe my work in the echo laboratory.