The team of Prof. Lucarelli has been in contact for many years with the Children Hospital of Baghdad, transplanting many patients and hosting Iraqi physicians at their own centre with learning and specializing aims.

After the recent war and about international agreements with the Coalition Forces in Iraq, Italy received the task to reorganize and to strengthen the sanitary system in Baghdad  and in the An Nasiriyah area, with operating facilities and institutions.

ICRC are coordinating, together with the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs, an intervention plan to build a centre network to treat the most important pathologies; ICRC involved IME Foundation in this project, both for the aspects of treatment and learning as far as the haematological diseases are concerned, and thalassaemia in particular, and for the organizational and technological aspects of the health system.

Let's build the Iraqi health system
Considering the IME Foundation share the necessity of building up a system, in this sense they have already defined a memorandum of cooperation, as far as the paediatric aspects with Gaslini Foundation in Genua and the Bambino Gesù in Rome.

In this cooperation field, besides taking care of the haematological aspects, with a particular reference to thalassaemia, IME can give a great professional contribution as to technological facilities and health learning.

The intervention will have to be scheduled, in order to concentrate the start-up step on a first "hub" (e.g. an Hospital in Baghdad), to develop through a network model (hub&spoke) the following actions on Iraqi centres.

An hospital in Bagdad
On the basis of the analysis carried out by IME Foundation and CRI, a second step to build a hospital in Baghdad will start. An operation plan will be proposed according to:

- Structure - fitting out or reorganizing of sanitary spaces, definition of the pathways, working logistics;

- Facilities - definition of the biomedical technologies, data connection network / images with interlacing to existing systems, or to be installed, possible satellite system for tele-medicine and second opinion;

- Organization - definition of the medical specialities to start, definition of the treatment paths amongst the hospital of the Italian intervention; medical, technical and nurse staff training, to be carried out on the spot or by short trips to the best Italian centres; know-how and professional skills transmission to Iraqi staff.