Italian National Institute of Health

  • Address

    Viale Regina Elena, 299 Roma

  • Founded

    1934

  • Field

    Public Health

  • Website

    www.iss.it

  • Email

    presidenza@iss.it

  • Phone

    06 49901

  • Socials

Scientific director

Silvio Brusaferro

The Italian National Institute of Health (ISS) is the Italian leading biomedical and public health research institute and is the scientific and technical entity of the national health service (SSN).

In particular, the public health promotion and protection activities of the Institute are accomplished concerning neurological, psychiatric, oncological, hematological, genetic, infectious, cardiovascular, endocrine-metabolic, immune-mediated, and age-related diseases.

ISS develops tools and strategies to ensure food safety and security, combating zoonoses and adopting appropriate eating styles. It assesses risks to human health from environmental exposures, identifies risk factors and environmental monitoring, biomonitoring, and surveillance studies.

It operates as the official Italian Laboratory for the Control of Medicinal Products and performs evaluation and control of medicinal products to be placed on the market or already on the market to ensure their quality and safety. It also carries out research and preclinical and clinical evaluation of medicines and supports their discovery, development, and testing.

Other activities include: research and development of therapies against HIV/AIDS and associated syndromes; research and analysis of the health status and needs of the world’s population to combat inequalities in access to health; research for the validation of diagnostic practices and therapies in gender medicine; research in the field of mental health to identify environmental etiopathogenetic mechanisms and promote psychophysical well-being; research, surveillance and prevention in the field of addiction and doping; assessment of risks related to the use of chemicals and cosmetics and prevention and management of hazardous exposures and intoxications; protection against dangers arising from exposure to ionizing and non-ionizing radiation and development of physical-computational methods; coordination of animal experimentation to protect animal welfare; research and monitoring of the quality and safety of care provided by health services; health technology assessment; research into telemedicine, new health care information technologies and innovative health technologies.

The Institute is the National Reference Centre for Rare Diseases and hosts the National Transplant Centre and the National Blood Centre. It collaborates on research and experimentation with other important national institutions working to protect public health, including the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Environment, the Regions, local health authorities, hospitals and scientific institutes for hospitalization and care.

It also has numerous activities and collaborations at the international level, including scientific and technical support to the European Commission and the Member States, to organizations such as WHO, EFSA, ECDC, IARC, OECD, OIE, UNEP and others, and to countries in transition, developing countries, and countries facing natural or human-made emergencies.

The Institute designs, develops and organizes health education and public health training courses for NHS staff. It also organizes national and international congresses, conferences, and seminars on major public health issues.

It produces several scientific publications, including: Annals, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal with impact factor; the Notiziario, a monthly newsletter on current activities and initiatives; technical reports and monographs on public health issues.

The Associates

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