New models and the major challenges for the academic research of the order’s experts TSRM PSTRP.
Authors: Di Trapani Giovanni 
Published: October 2023

It is unquestionable that the Order of Medical Radiology and Technical Healthcare Professions, Rehabilitation and Prevention has already since the first national congress started to promote specific actions toits members in order to encourage research activities.Measures aimed to the concrete development of theindependence, autonomy and responsibility of all professionals who cherish the valorization of their ownsocial function. The involvement of the 19 health careprofessions to the creation of the Journal of AdvancedHealth Care has become an essential element, and thepatronage that the National Federation granted to ourJournal outlined an ambitious mission: creation of a “space” and opportunity for TSRM PSTRP professionals to meet and exchange experiences.Multiple and rising ethical issues related to scienceand technology require experts to assume proactiveand informed approaches also in connection with scientific activities supporting Scientific Associations,thereby contributing to the continuous review of operating methods as well as the production of emerginginsights. The acceleration of social and technologicaltrends and the accelerating pace of environmentalchanges are thus forcing the professionals of the Order of Medical Radiology Technicians and the technical health professions, rehabilitation and preventionto move faster in decision-making processes. Therefore, the wide and articulated health care context inwhich health care professionals are included requiresthe assumption - with an eye to full cooperation - ofrelations with institutions which are increasingly effective, encouraging initiatives to adjust their careers- first and foremost - to the individual’s health careneeds. The central role played by the TSRM - PSTRPprofessionals therefore is a vital component of the activities of the TSRM - PSTRP, which must introducemeasures for safeguarding their healthcare patientsparticipating in the treatment process and ensuring thefull responsibility of all the stakeholders involved inthe treatment process.The multidisciplinary and inter-professional networkof the Order TSRM - PSTRP as well as of our Journal must analyse carefully in order to also promote“patient engagement” favouring more autonomy andproactivity in the individual’s lifestyle and healthcarepolicies. Nowadays, discussing engagement impliestaking a systemic vision on the health care processand new technologies represent an essential qualifying driver. While new perspectives in the health carecontext and new socioassistential models become essential for a concrete and proactive participation fromthe user, to implement the model necessarily needsa sociocultural transformation even of professionalsand technicians in the health care sector.To ensure a sustainable healthcare system in the future, the implementation of ethical and pragmatic priority actions is becoming more and more necessary,which is the great challenges that health sector professionals are called in order to support the achievementof a patient-player in the healthcare sector.The patient engagement model brings more relevantresearch results and possible solutions for the manyissues and dilemmas patients live in. For healthcareprofessionals and technicians in the 19 healthcare professions too, awareness grows that new and adequateorganizational models should be implemented to dealsuccessfully with shifts regarding healthcare needs.According to my opinion, one of the research fields toinvest in and to promote the activities aimed to implement scientific investigation dynamics even for professionals adhering to the Order of Medical Radiology Technicians and the technical health professions,rehabilitation and prevention.In the present network, in fact, patients are considered critical consumers of health services and, in themultifaceted psychosocial process of patient engagement, scientific literature considers it vital to changein order to create a sense for the new dynamics in thehealth “market”. Thus, the relationship which the patient develops with the healthcare service system ofreference and the supply chain of healthcare servicesin the different steps of the healthcare path becomescentral in the structure of the model for patient engagement.Despite a system which is still focused on responding to challenges of resource reduction and increasingdemand for services, the wide scientific literature suggests that people receiving assistance remain a poorlyused resource and should acquire more centrality indecision-making processes with a view to achievingan ambitious target of improved effectiveness andsustainability in care services. Procedures related topsycho-social, interpersonal and organisational issuesinvolved with patient engagement should, therefore,EDITORIALEQR CodeCHE5encourage the capacity of patients in their care settings to be more proactive and participate in the process of care management as well. Therefore, it is alsonecessary to launch assessment processes aiming toanalyze the role of communication in the experiencelived during the visit and, at the same time, to evaluate how deep the relationship established betweenprofessionals, technicians and patients is.At the same time, it is necessary to evaluate the role ofthe communicative approach in the experience duringthe visit and at the same time to quantify the profundity of the interaction between the professionals, thetechnicians and the patients. In this way, it is necessary to conduct analyses and studies aimed to implement a correct engagement finalized toward puttingthe patient more and more in the centre of the processes and professionals also of the medical radiologyand technical health care professions, rehabilitationand prevention, with the aim to provide patients withmore and more efficacious solutions.A correct assessment of engagement is therefore considered sufficient to stratify the level of risk, to personalise health services and to prefigure the amountand quantity of investments needed to meet the different target groups’ needs.Engagement is a complex process that results fromthe combination of different dimensions and factorsof an individual, relational, organizational, social,economic and political nature that characterize theperson’s life context. The diagram shows the relationship between engagement and other ideas of therapeutic participative processes (Figure 1).In order to promote engagement, a simplifying approach reducing individual engagement to an individual issue must be avoided, therefore an ecosystemof engagement actions must be developed that canoperate at multiple levels: individual, interpersonal,organizational, socio-community and political/institutional.To raise awareness, educate and involve health professionals and the healthcare team, there is the needto promote a “culture of engagement” by means ofconcrete actions, such as:- to provide, starting from university and continuingeducation courses, specific knowledge and skills topromote engagement in daily clinical practice;- promoting the health professional’s well-being andengagement and motivating him/her for concrete initiatives of stimulation.A systemic approach to engagement can respond better to complexity of commitment, avoiding a reductionist approach with fragmented and poorly coordinated interventions. The engagement should becomean integral part of the organizational models that provide for the realization of assistance in the treatmentof critical diseases with the strengthening of “out ofoffice” actions, i.e. alternative contexts, linked topeople’s life experiences, their sensibility and theirinterests are functional to integrate in strategies forpromoting engagement.