The 2021-23 Master of Advanced Studies in Health and Social Care Economics and Management (Net-MEGS) kicks off

The 2021-2023 edition of the Master of Advanced Studies in Healthcare Economics and Management (Net-MEGS) kicked off, at the USI East Campus "Aula Polivalente", on October 4, with the first module on "Health Management and Entrepreneurship", led by professor and co-director of the programme, Marco Meneguzzo.

Net-MEGS was launched in 1999 (as MEGS) as a joint initiative of USI and SUPSI, and is USI's longest running (and longest lasting) continuing education programme. To date, it has graduated more than 300 participants from healthcare and socio-medical institutions in Canton Ticino, other Swiss cantons, Italy and other European countries.

The course began with a few institutional greetings from the Net-MEGS Management, namely Prof. Emiliano Albanese (Institute of Public Health, USI) and Prof. Luca Maria Gambardella (Pro-Rector for Innovation and Corporate Relations, USI), and Prof. Carlo De Pietro (SUPSI) who welcomed over 50 participants in attendance. The cohort of participants come from the 2021-2023 Net-MEGS and the MAS in Health Management at SUPSI. 

"Keeping up to date and improving one's skills is the basis for professional and personal growth," commented Prof. Gambardella, who is also the academic head of continuing education at USI. "For students/workers, returning to class requires great commitment and the ability to give up their free time. This is another reason why I have great admiration for them. Today I have seen managers that I find again, and will find again, in the healthcare facilities of this Canton, and as a citizen I am happy that their skills are modern and up-to-date. USI will continue to support these continuing education initiatives with great commitment, including new and interesting programmes".

The three-day programme included lectures, group work and testimonials from professionals, some of whom were also Net-MEGS alumni, like Gabriele Balestra, administrative director of ALVAD (Associazione Locarnese e Valmaggese di assistenza e cura a domicilio) and Vice-President of Spitex Switzerland, who said: "It's always a pleasure to give testimony and present the experience of managerial practice. The spirit of Net-MEGS that I experienced as a student 20 years ago has remained unchanged: concreteness, closeness to practice, innovative visions, inter-professionalism, networking and contacts that remain over the years".

Alberto Fossati, president of Fondazione la Residenza (Varese, Italy) and Net-MEGS 2013-2015 alumnus, commented: "Returning to Net-MEGS comes with a feeling of participation and sharing, in my case about the turnaround experience at a Swiss residential home in Italy that was about to fold and instead found new life. It was important to be able to tell and share thoughts, reflections, good practices and those that need improving, in a transparent way, to share skills and to have together more tools to propose and manage social environments where the elderly always come with fragility, hopes and the desire to continue to live as a person. An important network of shared experiences".

Net-MEGS is an interdisciplinary continuing education programme aimed at all professionals and non-professionals working in the healthcare and social care sectors. The programme includes interactive teaching (theory, case studies and classroom simulations), accurate selection of local, national and international teaching staff, and access to a wide academic and professional network.

For more information:
www.net-megs.usi.ch