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At the moment, dementia is affecting around 47 million people worldwide, with a forecast amount of 135 million affected people in 2050. Dementia is a growing health concern worldwide with no treatment currently available, but only symptomatic medication. Effective interventions in the prevention and management of dementia are urgently needed to contain direct and indirect costs of this disease. Indeed, the economic impact of dementia is a vast and continually growing figure, but it is still difficult to quantify. Due to an increase in both the disease spreading and its direct and indirect costs, national and international action plans have to be implemented. As a virtuous example, the Italian national plan for dementia has been summarized. Faced with an increasingly less sustainable disease impact at national and international levels, the plan suggests that it is certainly the entire welfare model that should be rethought, strengthening the network of services and providing interventions to support affected people and their caregivers. Alongside this synergistic approach, scientific research could play a crucial role for pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments capable of delaying the state of loss of self-sufficiency of the patient, with a significant impact on social and health costs.

Background and objective: Telemedicine or telehealth services has been increasingly practiced in the recent years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine turned into and indispensable service in order to avoid contagion between healthcare professionals and patients, involving a growing number of medical disciplines. Nevertheless, at present, several ethical and legal issues related to the practice of these services still remain unsolved and need adequate regulation. This narrative review will give a synthesis of the main ethical and legal issues of telemedicine practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Material and Methods: A literature search was performed on PubMed using MeSH terms: Telemedicine (which includes Mobile Health or Health, Mobile, mHealth, Telehealth, and eHealth), Ethics, Legislation/Jurisprudence, and COVID-19. These terms were combined into a search string to better identify relevant articles published in the English language from March 2019 to September 2021. Results: Overall, 24 out of the initial 85 articles were considered eligible for this review. Legal and ethical issues concerned important aspects such as: informed consent (information about the risks and benefits of remote therapy) and autonomy (87%), patient privacy (78%) and confidentiality (57%), data protection and security (74%), malpractice and professional liability/integrity (70%), equity of access (30%), quality of care (30%), the professional–patient relationship (22%), and the principle of beneficence or being disposed to act for the benefit of others (13%). Conclusions: The ethical and legal issues related to the practice of telehealth or telemedicine services still need standard and specific rules of application in order to guarantee equitable access, quality of care, sustainable costs, professional liability, respect of patient privacy, data protection, and confidentiality. At present, telemedicine services could be only used as complementary or supplementary tools to the traditional healthcare services. Some indications for medical providers are suggested.

Three-dimensional bioprinting is a rapidly evolving technology that holds the promise of addressing the increasing demand for organs, tissues, and personalized medicine. By employing computer-aided design and manufacturing processes, 3D bioprinting allows for the precise deposition of living cells, biomaterials, and biochemicals to create functional human tissues and organs. The potential applications of this technology are vast, including drug testing and development, disease modeling, regenerative medicine, and ultimately, organ transplantation. However, as with any groundbreaking technology, 3D bioprinting presents several ethical, legal, and regulatory concerns that warrant careful consideration. As the technology progresses towards clinical applications, it is essential to address these challenges and establish appropriate frameworks to guide the responsible development of 3D bioprinting. This article, utilizing the Arksey and O’Malley scoping review model, is designed to scrutinize the bioethical implications, legal and regulatory challenges, and medico-legal issues that are intertwined with this rapidly evolving technology.

It is since the beginning of the so-called ‘digital revolution’ in the 1950s that technological tools have been developed to simplify and optimise traditional, time-consuming, and laborious anamnestic collection for many physicians. In recent years, more and more sophisticated ‘automated’ anamnestic collection systems have been developed, to the extent that they can actually enter daily clinical practice. This article not only provides a historical overview of the evolution of such tools, but also explores the ethical and medico-legal implications of the transition from traditional to digital anamnesis, including the protection of data confidentiality, the preservation of the communicative effectiveness of the doctor–patient dialogue and the safety of care in patients with poor digital and health literacy.

The aim of this Research Topic was to investigate the state of the art regarding the relationship between physicians' decision-making autonomy and the use of highly automated AI systems in healthcare. [...]the Research Topic allowed for a comprehensive exploration of the most relevant medico-legal and bioethical implications of the use of highly automated artificial intelligence systems in medicine, including the issue of the preservation of the physician's decision-making autonomy. Conflict of interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

In recent years, Italy has experienced a significant increase in violence against healthcare workers, mirroring a global trend. Manifesting as verbal, physical, psychological, and material aggression, this phenomenon endangers both personnel safety and the foundational principles of the National Health Service (SSN) as outlined in Article 32 of the Italian Constitution. The escalation—most acute in emergency departments, psychiatric units, inpatient wards, and community services—affects a broad spectrum of professionals, compromising care quality and institutional integrity. Data from the FNOMCeO-CENSIS Report 2023–2024 reveal over 18,000 reported incidents in 2024, with verbal assaults disproportionately affecting female nursing staff. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated systemic vulnerabilities, heightening user dissatisfaction and psychological strain among healthcare providers. In response, legislative actions—such as Law No. 113/2020 and Decree-Law No. 137/2024—aim to strengthen prevention, monitoring, and penal measures. This article examines legal, institutional, and organizational responses, including on-the-ground and hospital-based strategies to mitigate violence. Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective, it analyzes recent policy developments, regional dynamics, and victim-perpetrator profiles, arguing that safeguarding healthcare environments is both a public security priority and an ethical imperative essential to preserving the dignity of care work and the resilience of the health system.

The imposition of compulsory health treatments has always been a subject of animated legal and bioethical debate. What is at stake are two opposing interests that are in their own way protected by international treaties and constitutional provisions: the right to individual self-determination and the duty to defend and preserve collective safety. The global health crisis related to the COVID-19 pandemic has placed the issue of the legitimacy of imposing compulsory vaccination at the center of the multifaceted debate on pandemic health policies. Indonesia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Federated States of Micronesia are currently the only four countries in the world where the COVID-19 vaccine is mandatory for all citizens. Italy was the first country in the European Union to introduce this obligation, effective from 8 January 2022 by virtue of the decree-law approved on 5 January 2022, which imposed vaccination compulsory for everyone over the age of 50. Similar paths have been undertaken by Greece and Austria, where the obligation will start respectively on 16 January 2022 (for citizens aged over 60) and 1 February 2022 (for citizens of all ages). However, in many civilized countries, “selective” forms of compulsory vaccination, i.e., aimed at specific categories of individuals, especially healthcare professionals, are already provided for. The present work aims to offer a concise and as much as possible exhaustive overview of the main ethical and legal issues related to compulsory COVID-19 vaccination, with reference to both the Italian and the international context, mainly European.

Aims Breast reconstruction after mastectomy is nowadays a gold standard in therapy of breast cancer patients. Free deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) flap reconstruction is a favorable method when traditional implants fail or are not viable, especially after radiotherapy. The aim of this paper is to present the results of a case series study of 40 patients operated on with DIEP flap from January 2020 to October 2023, in Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery Department in Nicosia General Hospital, Cyprus, complications and wound management, reoperation rates, as well as to examine these results from a medico‐legal perspective, to highlight the most significant medico‐legal implications of this demanding, surgical procedure. Method Forty patients were included in this study with unilateral or bilateral free DIEP reconstruction, from January 2020 to October 2023, in Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery Department in Nicosia General Hospital, Cyprus. Demographics, preoperative conditions, hospitalization days, complication rates, and reoperation rates were analyzed as well as satisfaction rates of patients were evaluated. Results This original article highlighted a number of issues of strict medico‐legal interest, including the importance of informed consent in the case of demanding procedures for reconstructive and esthetic purposes, the assessment of standards of care in the evaluation of medical liability, and the existence of an obligation of means or results on the reconstructive surgeon's part. Conclusions DIEP breast reconstruction after mastectomy is a challenging but safe and with well postoperative results operation that should be employed in cases traditional implant reconstruction fail or not feasible due to other parameters. Innovative and demanding reconstructive, esthetic surgery procedures are characterized by particularly significant aspects of medico‐legal interest, which deserve careful consideration by both the scientific community and patients involved. Summary Breast reconstruction after mastectomy is nowadays a gold standard in therapy of breast cancer patients. Deep inferior epigastric perforator (DIEP) breast reconstruction after mastectomy is a challenging but safe and with well postoperative results operation. Innovative and demanding reconstructive, esthetic surgery procedures are characterized by particularly significant aspects of medico‐legal interest. In breast reconstruction using DIEP flaps, informed consent is vital due to the procedure's innovative nature, microsurgical complexity, and variable outcomes. High surgical standards require skilled microsurgeons, and complication management must be proactive.

Hoarding disorder (HD) is a recently recognized psychiatric condition, now classified under the category of obsessive-compulsive and related disorders in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). It leads to an unwarranted attachment to material possessions, such that the individual is unable to separate themselves from them. There is still a lack of awareness of the critical sociological implications of this disorder, which is too often considered a purely health-related issue. This article endeavors to frame hoarding disorder from a unique socio-criminological and legal perspective, proposing an alternative approach to HD that considers it not only as a mental disorder, but also as a genuine societal issue. We also explore potential avenues for protection, considering both the well-being of individuals with this mental disorder and the communities in which individuals suffering from HD reside. This paper presents a fresh perspective on HD, aiming to delineate its impact and significance as an affliction affecting both individuals and society at large.

This narrative literature review has analyzed the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) in the field of maritime medicine. A comprehensive search was conducted in academic databases using relevant search terms, resulting in the identification of 257 records. After screening for relevance and quality, a final review was conducted on 17 papers. This review highlights the potential applications and benefits of AI and AR in enhancing medical practices and safety measures for seafarers. The integration of AI and AR technologies in maritime medicine shows promise in providing real-time medical assistance, remote consultations, augmented training, and improved diagnostic capabilities. Additionally, AI-driven predictive models can aid in early detection of health issues and support proactive health management onboard ships. Challenges related to data privacy, connectivity at sea, and the need for regulatory frameworks are also discussed. The data analysis reported in this review contributes to a better understanding of the current state and future potential of AI and AR in maritime medicine and provide insights into opportunities for further research and implementation in the maritime industry.