Physiotherapy, best wishes to Aifi: the association has been serving citizens for 65 years

Great celebrations for the 65 years of Aifi, the physiotherapists' association. President Cecchetto: "Fundamental contributions from physiotherapy for the improvement of the health system"

ROME – Happy birthday Aifi! On Saturday 8 June the Italian Physiotherapy Association celebrated 65 years since its foundation. An important anniversary, celebrated during a conference attended by numerous physiotherapists and representatives of institutions, who discussed the development of the science of physiotherapy in relation to the evolution of society’s health needs.
The event, entitled ‘Empowering physiotherapy, enhancing society. A society that evolves‘, was held at the ‘The Building Meeting’ hotel in Rome. Aifi’s birthday celebrated over half a century of life; founded in 1959 as AITR Italian Association of Rehabilitation Therapists, the association had its first name change in 2002 to AIFI Italian Association of Physiotherapists and then assumed the name of Italian Physiotherapy Association in 2020 upon completion of the transformation into a scientific society.

In these 65 years, AIFI has tried to contribute to the growth of healthcare culture in the country with an active presence in the social and political dynamics and with active contributions in the cultural and scientific evolution of the professionals who interpret physiotherapy in the most diverse ways on a daily basis places of activity: hospitals, clinics, patients’ homes, retirement homes, day centres, universities, research centres, schools and workplaces.

The sessions of the conference were numerous and rich in content, moderated by the AIFI President, Simone Cecchetto, by the National Councilor Responsible for Scientific Production, Silvia Gianola and by the AIFI Vice President, Andrea Turolla. In the session that opened the congress, entitled ‘Empowering Society – The evolution of society’s health needs: which real needs and which perceived needs?‘, the president of the National Federation of Orders spoke. of the Physiotherapists (Fnofi), Piero Ferrante, and Maria Vitale of CittadinanzAttiva. ‘We talked about the evolution of the physiotherapist profession – explained Piero Ferrante to the Dire agency – which saw the important innovation of the birth of the Orders of Physiotherapists; precisely with Aifi on 8 September 2022 we celebrated the publication of the ministerial decree which sanctioned the birth of the Orders which would then become effective on 15 December 2022. Many things have been happening since that day and many are in progress for the physiotherapist profession. The institution of the Order of Physiotherapists has a very important reverberation in the life of the professional, in the life of citizens, in the institutional recognition of the physiotherapist since this Order regulates, helps, relates, compares, proposes strategies and policies’.
‘ Citizens’ needs – added Maria Vitale – are increasingly growing, also with respect to rehabilitation and physiotherapy, two of the perhaps most important dimensions for the health of the entire community . It was a pleasure to participate in Aifi’s birthday, demonstrating the evolution that the Association has had in recent years and its contribution to the evolution of the health profession of physiotherapists in Italy. Vitale said she was ‘concerned by some issues: access to LEAs, to the essential services that must be guaranteed to the population of all ages and conditions, such as those in developmental age or those aimed at patients with chronic pathologies; another critical aspect is that of waiting lists also in the field of rehabilitation which undermine the protection of the right to health.

‘During my report – he continued – I then listed the main issues concerning the reports made by citizens and patients with chronic or rare pathologies with respect to access to rehabilitation and physiotherapy health services in the various contexts, both inpatient, outpatient or home-based.
The Director of Health, Welfare and Social Cohesion of the Tuscany Region, Federico Gelli, Rosella Saulle of the GRADE Center in Rome and Tiziano Innocenti, Director of the Methodology Unit of the Gimbe Foundation, together with a contribution video of Dr. Velia Bruno of the Higher Institute of Health (ISS), were the speakers of the second Round Table, entitled ‘Empowering Societies – The contribution of the Scientific Societies and the National Guidelines System to strengthen the responses of the Health System’. After the entry into force of the Gelli-Bianco law, ‘scientific societies have become the main actor for the drafting and dissemination of the Guidelines – specified Federico Gelli, drafter of the law that bears his name – through the national system Guidelines, which guides all processes regardingthe Guidelines, which have become a possible exempting reference for the liability of healthcare professionals. The 450 scientific societies accredited with the criteria and characteristics envisaged by the law decree which was issued immediately after the approval of the standard made it possible to survey the entities that in our country will be able to write scientific reference documents for clinical practice such as Guidelines or good clinical-assistance practices’. And Aifi is one of the scientific societies registered in this list since November 2018.
‘GRADE – the words of Rosella Saulle – is a methodology now recognized internationally by over 110 organizations and which offers itself as a support for the development and production of Guidelines. It is absolutely important, as it evaluates the quality, certainty of the evidence, reliability and filters the information precisely to make the recommendations optimal, for a better management of patients and to assist, above all, clinicians in making decisions regarding the appropriate management. of the different conditions’.
‘The advantages of the GRADE methodology – he then specified – are the transparency and clarification of the quality of the evidence, but above all the way in which the recommendations are formulated. It takes into consideration not only the quality of the evidence but also the preferences of patients and the resources to be invested; it therefore represents a very important process for influencing the quality of healthcare.
Tiziano Innocenti’s speech was also particularly stimulating for the audience. ‘When we talk about the ecosystem of evidence – notes Innocenti – it is important above all to ask ourselves questions. For this reason I wanted to push us to ask ourselves whether we are doing enough to encourage quality, relevant, integral research that truly intercepts the needs of people, professionals and health services. And, again, whether we are adequately training the professionals of today and tomorrow to produce and use evidence. And, finally, whether the current mechanisms for evaluating scientific production and allocating research funds are rewarding the quality and not the quantity of production.

After a short break, the work resumed under the banner of emotions and memories during the ‘Aifi: yesterday, today and tomorrow’ session, in which the last three past presidents of the Association brought their greetings and best wishes , Vincenzo Manigrasso, Antonio Bortone and Mauro Tavarnelli. Manigrasso underlined the very high quality of AIFI’s recent training proposals such as the conference last October and invited everyone to repeat AIFI’s historical experience, that of everyone working in the same direction even if sometimes one may find oneself in majority dynamics and opposition. With Bortone we retraced the years in which AIFI became the most representative Association and played, from a private association to voluntary membership, a role of protection of the profession prodromal to that which today, with greater institutional strength, is played by the Orders: taking into account borrowing the words from Cesare Cremonini’s song ‘Have a good trip’, he added that ‘however far there is still to go, you will love the ending’. Tavarnelli recalled how AIFI’s present is extremely bright as is its future. ‘The hope – he recalled – is that our scientific society will make a lot of health policy, because the scientific society can have a great impact on the health system’.
The emotion and memory then gave way to emotion: those present in fact, they remembered with long and warm applause Mauro Gugliucciello, a physiotherapist from Udine who passed away a few years ago, a historical figure and key to many of the regulatory developments that physiotherapists and more generally the healthcare professions have experienced in recent years. twenty-five years.
After the moment of remembrance, the conference saw a space dedicated to the philosophy of science with a lectio magistralis entitled ‘When is a science a science?’ by Luca Guzzardi, associate professor, Department of Philosophy ‘Piero Martinetti’, University of Milan, who also citing Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, recalled that the cooperative spirit, going beyond the appearances of the moment, innovation, falsification are some of the paths that can be followed to answer the question entrusted to him.
The event concluded with the session entitled ‘Empowering Physiotherapy: the evolution of the science of physiotherapy for the evolution of the Health System’. The debate was animated by the vice-president of Fnofi, Melania Salina, the full professor and director of the Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences of the University of Bologna, Paolo Pillastrini, the coordinator of the degree course in Physiotherapy of the University of Florence, Patrizia Galantini, and the Editor in chief of Archives of Physiotherapy and associate professor Supsi, Marco Barbero.
‘The elements that emerged – underlined the AIFI vice-president, Andrea Turolla, moderator of the final session – were all very interesting and fundamental. We talked about how the academic system is growing for our discipline, thanks to the presence of almost 15 physiotherapists holding professor or researcher roles in the University, as well as hundreds of physiotherapists who have obtained their PhD. Furthermore, the process of building the ‘Core curriculum’ and the ‘Core competence’ of the physiotherapist was relived, which have been the basis for standardizing and strengthening the basic training of students since the early 2000s and which still today represents a point of reference point for redesigning the new paths that will have to face the challenges of the healthcare system. The topic of publishing was then addressed and how it can improve scientific communication through quality products that take into account not only the final publication but also how these publications are produced. An important theme was also that of the contribution that developing countries give and will give to scientific production at an international level.
The AIFI president, Simone Cecchetto, was extremely satisfied. ‘It was a truly very full day of ideas, ideas and impulses towards the future. We opened our congress by giving space to the needs of citizens and people with disabilities, because they are the main focus of our actions as professionals and as experts in the science of physiotherapy. Then a look at the relationship between the Federation of Orders and scientific society, two realities that must increasingly move forward together, because there is no science without politics and there is no politics without science. Our attention then moved to one of the mandates particularly entrusted to scientific societies, namely that of the production of Guidelines within the national Guidelines system, with the fortune of having here with us today the material drafter of the Gelli-Bianco law, Federico Gelli, who reminded us of the state of progress of this very important law for improving the quality of care.

‘In the afternoon – Cecchetto summarized – we were happy to have been able to briefly relive the 65 years of history, also through the many stages of the development of the health professions, of the physiotherapist profession and of the science of physiotherapy, stages that AIFI supported and facilitated over time with its action. The gaze on tomorrow was fundamental, on the evolution in the academic field, in that of institutional relations, in basic training and in scientific production. A day full of stimuli, therefore, to be able to launch ourselves even more and better in our role as a scientific society of physiotherapy’.
Cecchetto finally recalled that ‘physiotherapy offers the health system a great wealth of skills in many areas : musculoskeletal, neurological, lymphological, cardiorespiratory, pediatric, elderly, sports and many others; but also new intervention strategies through technologies, such as robotics, virtual reality, movement analysis; and new skills of physiotherapists in the fields of management, teaching and research’.
‘The future, therefore – concluded the AIFI President – will see a deepening and amplification of this knowledge and skills within new more effective and efficient organizational models. As a scientific society we feel a great responsibility, that of wanting to contribute to improving the health system with the specific skills that physiotherapists and physiotherapy can provide to improve responses to the health needs of all citizens and to optimize the sustainability of the health system national, great heritage of our country’.