Philosophy

The diagnosis of tumors confronts the patient with an emergency. Our Oncological Practice is in a position to put into effect a therapeutic project with the best prospects of a cure thanks also to the close collaboration with a network of specialists.

When dealing with a tumoral disease, our approach to intervention is based on the following:

This places at the center of attention the patient and his or her needs of:

The person suffering from disease is looked after during the entire course of the disease, from the diagnostic to the therapeutic procedures, and in the case of incurable disease, also during the terminal phase.
In this accompaniment, various people and services interact, who continuously evaluate the situation of the patient and, if necessary, they re-evaluate his or her condition to decide on a more effective therapeutic strategy.

Corollaries to our working philosophy are as follows:

Today there are good prospects of cure thanks to the broad spectrum of excellent care available to all in the Swiss health and insurance context.

The Concept of Integrated Care

Guaranteeing the best care to the patient during the course of his or her oncological disease requires the collaboration of important people and services:

Inter-disciplinariness and co-ordination of the types of care insure an individualized therapeutic treatment and psychological accompaniment, which are social and, above all, human. The patient, his or her needs and the quality of his or her life are constantly at the center of attention.

The Family Doctor
The oncologist collaborates closely with the family doctor, who best knows the patient, his or her psycho-social situation and the potential resources available at home; in this manner it is possible to guarantee the best support to the patient from the beginning of the disease.

The family doctor:

The Associazione Triangolo
The oncological patient also has to deal with other problems, such as, for example,

The Associazione Triangolo has stood at the side of oncological patients with volunteers and professionals for over twenty years.

The volunteers carry out many tasks, as transporting patients, minor assistance in everyday life at home, or simply offering human support.

The social worker takes care of the organization of prostheses or medical-technical necessities at home, of looking for places for intermediate care, of the procedures for requesting subsidies or financial support, in collaboration with the Associazione Dialogare accompanies the person in his or her professional re-insertion or in the search for new employment.

 The psycho-oncological service assists the patient in dealing with a series of problems from the psychological stress caused by the diagnosis and by the subsequent treatment to the problems of the patient’s relations with his family, giving support also to family members.

The team of physicians and nurses, with specialized training, offers the possibility of a treatment of support for patients at home, for whom it is impossible to use normal transportation or of palliative care for patients who are in need of comforting during the terminal phase of the disease.

The Oncology Department of the Clinica Sant'Anna:
The Department has a physician specialized in medical oncology and a Department physician co-ordinated by the oncologists Marco Varini and Antonello Calderoni. The para-medical personnel - directed by the head of the Department, Roberta Terzaghi - consists of a team of nurses with long experience both in active treatment, chemotherapy and support therapy in the case of significant collateral effects of treatment and is particularly attentive to giving moral support both to the patient and to his or her family members during the more problematic phases of the disease.

Interdisciplinarity and the Co-ordination of the Types of Care
The presence of all of these professionals who work for the oncological patient requires a high level of mutual agreement, collaboration and co-ordination.
Several times every week the medical staff, the nurses, the co-ordinator of the volunteers, the physiotherapists, the dietician, the psycho-oncologist, the social worker and the palliative care team meet to discuss every individual case.
The situation of the patient is constantly re-evaluated to decide the most effective therapeutic support strategy, in which the involvement of the family doctor, of the members of the family, or of any other support that may be recruited remain of fundamental importance in the intention, above all, to maintain the patient as long as possible in his own home.
The patient always remains at the center of all this attention until the disease is weakened or until, unfortunately, it wins out.