Frecciarosa 2018: over a thousand preventive visits on board trains and in the stations of the FS Italiane Group
Frecciarosa 2018: over a thousand preventive visits on board trains and in the stations of the FS Italiane Group
Rome, 26 November 2018
Over a thousand preventive medical examinations and 80,000 health vademecums distributed on board over 80 trains between regional, Frecce, InterCity, and stations.
In October (from 2nd to 31st) oncologists, surgeons, radiologists and IncontraDonna volunteers, with the support of AIOM Foundation doctors, carried out specialist visits, in many cases using two portable ultrasounds. Great team work that allowed 530 breast exams, 340 breast ultrasounds, 74 thyroid ultrasounds, 45 neck and inguinal blood vessel ultrasounds, 35 cardiological visits, 20 echocardiographs, and 30 oncological consultations. All patients were informed of the benefits of prevention, through the free delivery of the Health Vademecum.
These are the results of Frecciarosa 2018, the eighth edition of the campaign dedicated to the prevention of breast cancer and a culture of prevention, promoted in October by FS Italiane and non-profit IncontraDonna, under the patronage of the Ministry of Health and the participation of Farmindustria.
This edition paid more attention to people traveling on regional trains and in Southern Italy and for the first time Frecciarosa visited, with exams, ultrasounds, and consultations, Sardinia. The volunteers carried out prevention and diagnosis activities on Frecciargento to and from Puglia, to and from Calabria, and on InterCity in Sicily. The IncontraDonna initiative also involved the Roma Termini, Milano Centrale, Torino Porta Susa, Verona Porta Nuova, and Salerno stations.
These were the most relevant pathologies diagnosed: breast carcinoma, suspicious breast and thyroid nodules, stenosis of the common carotid artery, femoral artery aneurysm, cases of suspected genetic mutation, right ventricular dilatation, thickening of the interventricular septum, and mitral prolapse. Several cases of thyroiditis, nodular goitre, and various but not suspicious nodules of the breast were also diagnosed.
"These results - underlined Giulia Grillo, Minister of Health - highlight the work that over time is contributing to develop a culture of prevention, as evidenced by the influx of people who have joined the Frecciarosa campaign and have gone to get exams and screening in non-specifically dedicated contexts. As I said at the beginning of this campaign, even a train, a station, can become a useful tool to promote awareness in people of the importance of adopting behaviours useful to maintaining good health. I want to thank the many volunteers who have given their time this year contributing to the success of the campaign and all those who in various ways participated enthusiastically in spreading knowledge and correct information on health issues.”
"Frecciarosa has now entered the fabric of the Italian populace that travels thousands of kilometres every day", said Adriana Bonifacino, President of IncontraDonna. "Many ladies have chosen to climb aboard the trains indicated at the beginning of the campaign already equipped with blood tests, mammograms, ultrasounds, and even medical records. Frecciarosa is a useful service that does not distract from public health services, but rather helps to encourage the population to rely on public organizational models, especially in regards to screening. To promote health and take care of those people who have been diagnosed with health problems by entrusting them to the various public centres in the different territories, this above all is Frecciarosa. Thanks to the diffusion of the video related to the Pianeta Seno App on all the train monitors of FS Italiane, IncontraDonna has recorded a significant increase in downloads of this App, useful for guiding women in the world of senology at national level."
"The results of the 2018 edition of Frecciarosa once again confirm FS Italian's commitment to the service of people», underlined Gianfranco Battisti, Managing Director and General Manager of FS Italiane." The initiative demonstrates how the train can be a place for people who travel a place of knowledge and communication, where they can inform themselves and find help in potentially delicate situations. On our trains people have had the opportunity to read up on behaviours to be followed for the protection of their health and to undergo specialist visits. This success, in addition to increasing the sense of social responsibility of FS Italiane, highlights how the choice made eight years ago to use the train to make women and men aware of the prevention culture was the right one to enlarge the audience of the people involved."