From diagnosis to dignity: a holistic approach to health

You have extensive experience in the pharmaceutical sector, both in Italy and abroad. What led you to choose this field, and what does it mean to you today to work in an industry that deals so directly with bodies, health, and care?
Twenty-eight years in the life sciences: a personal and professional journey that has been meaningful in many ways. It’s a path that has profoundly changed my perception of what the body is, and of what health and care truly mean. For a long time, I saw the body as the confined space of materiality — a place meant to contain something far more significant: thought, emotion, soul, heart. A place destined either to connect with the world or to bid it farewell. From that essentially dualistic — if not even antagonistic — conception of the person, I’ve learned that the body is actually a crossroads of interconnections, linking many inner and outer dimensions. There is no real separation or boundary between what we experience on our skin and what we experience in any other layer of ourselves. We are an ecosystem: to take care of the body means to take care of our thoughts, our emotions, and our relationships. The body is neither the perishable container of the soul nor the mere res extensa of a res cogitans: it has its own agency, its own voice — yet it’s part of a complex choir. Sometimes dissonant, sometimes asynchronous, but still a choir that must be understood and treated as such. To work with bodies, health, and care means to work with whole human beings.

Diasorin operates in the field of diagnostics and research. What role does innovation play today in protecting and promoting the well-being of bodies, and how does a company with this mission ensure equitable and sustainable access to health?
Diasorin is a global multinational company, a leader in the field of immunodiagnostics and molecular diagnostics. For us, innovation doesn’t just mean imagining something that doesn’t yet exist — it means having the audacity and the courage to build it. This is the story of Diasorin: specialists in diagnostics, obsessed with science, entrepreneurs by nature, global by choice. Without a passion for research, without the constant drive toward innovation, there would be no diagnosis — and therefore, no cure. Managers in every industry are trained to devote time to defining problems, knowing that if you fail in diagnosis, you fail in solutions — wasting scarce and, by definition, finite resources. This is true in every field of knowledge, including medicine. Choosing to work in diagnostics means focusing upstream on effectiveness, appropriateness, and sustainability. Take, for example, antibiotic resistance — often caused by overuse and inappropriate prescriptions (the World Health Organization reports that 50% of antibiotic prescriptions are inappropriate). It’s a global emergency that could cause up to 40 million deaths by 2050 — a public health crisis and a serious threat to the sustainability of healthcare systems. Making accurate diagnoses of infectious diseases is an urgent and essential priority.

You’ve dedicated part of your career to developing projects and relationships in the field of rare diseases, where the body’s vulnerability is particularly evident. What have you learned from that experience — both professionally and personally?
Living in the world of rare diseases is an experience that changes you forever. It was one of the most illuminating and enriching experiences of my life. I’ve learned countless things, and a single book wouldn’t be enough to tell them all or express my gratitude. I’ve learned how blind prejudice can be; how extraordinary the community of Italian healthcare professionals is — among the best in the world; how strong and unstoppable the commitment of patients and their associations can be; how essential and empowering it is to work together as a system; how wonderful a small victory can be; and how achievable a great one can become when you are supported and cared for. I’ve also learned how unbearable certain forms of incivility can be, those tied to stereotyped notions of “performance-ism” (if you’ll allow me the neologism). And I’ve felt a profound respect for the clinicians’ sense of mission and the courageous passion that drives the entire community.

You’ve worked to develop a corporate culture centered on creative leadership and people empowerment. How can performance and care coexist? And what does gentle leadership look like today, especially in a high-pressure field like pharmaceuticals?
Let me start with a provocation. Your question assumes a kind of oxymoron — an almost ontological opposition between performance and care for people. I’ve always resisted that contradiction, and I’ll tell you this: I have a certain aversion to debates that reduce everything to an either/or. Either performance or care. Either results or kindness. Either profit or well-being. Here’s what I know: people who are treated as weak, flawed, lacking, or incapable will behave accordingly. Those who are constantly criticized without any bridge toward growth, without any spark of encouragement, those who are immersed in discouraging or generically stressful environments — they simply can’t give their best. Care is not indulgence, nor is it soft tolerance of mediocrity. It’s quite the opposite. Care is a powerful drive — an energy that opens possibilities, that propels growth and the ambitious expansion of the self. Care is an almost obsessive gaze toward the other person, a way of seeing them through the lens of wanting them to win — and precisely for that reason, we face both their vulnerabilities and our own. From my experience, it’s only through that kind of gaze that you can teach, inspire, and encourage someone to become the best version of themselves. Have you ever seen athletes win thanks to those who believed in them? The coaches, the fans, the crowd in the stands — no one ever wins entirely alone.