Poliambulatorio Venere: women, families and listening to the patient
This year, to celebrate International Women’s Day, we decided to shine the spotlight on a mother, businesswoman and professional: Selene Blasi, Director of the Poliambulatorio Venere. In just a few years, Selene and her team have established and consolidated a multi-specialist diagnostic centre that offers outstanding medical services in Rome.
What led you to open the Poliambulatorio Venere?
My father, Cesare Blasi, was one of the founders of Metaltronica and, thanks to him, I learned about the world of electro-medical equipment when I was just a girl. As an adult, and then a mother of two wonderful children, I felt the need to grow, also professionally, and to improve my skills in the health sector. Having acquired the necessary knowledge, my family and I decided to launch a project, still connected with health care, but which would guarantee direct contact with patients and the opportunity to help then in the best possible way.
… from a perfect mix of ability, professionalism, and empathy, in June 2018, the doors to the “Poliambulatorio Venere”.
And so, from a perfect mix of ability, professionalism, and empathy, in June 2018, the doors to the “Poliambulatorio Venere” were finally opened. In this phase, the help provided by senior partners (with their experience in the field) and by my brother (a constant companion on this journey) was incredibly important but, at the same time, a real source of inspiration, as has been my grandmother throughout my life: she was the first daughter of ten children and the backbone of our family – the greatest example of humility and dedication.
The female figure is still, today, the fulcrum around which the entire family revolves: a woman who finds the right support in a health centre for prevention and health care will not hesitate to recommend it to her family, friends, and close acquaintances. So the Venere Health Centre was set up with a strong feminine bias that emphasises prevention: beginning with breast cancer, through mammograms and gynaecological check-ups, but also including all the main branches of medicine and diagnostics.
How is the team at the Poliambulatorio Venere made up?
Patients are welcomed at the Poliambulatorio Venere reception desk by an all-female team. This choice has proven to be successful given the good listening skills traditionally associated to being a woman. The medical team is, however, organised and made up equally of both male and female doctors specialising in female health. Our goal is to support women through the various stages of their life: from adolescence to childbearing age, from pregnancy to menopause. Together with our professionals we have created prevention and treatment programmes which cover the main female pathologies (as well as others) using the most modern and advanced diagnostic equipment.
What prevention and control programmes are offered?
The Poliambulatorio Venere offers various prevention programmes aimed at meeting the potential needs of patients. We also try to alternate our promotions throughout the year in order to allow everyone to schedule check-ups (cardiology, radiology, mammograms, etc.). Our goal is to meet the various needs of our patients with attention and continuity. Our main focus though, for which we are, perhaps, best known, is preventing breast cancer. At least twice a year, traditionally in March and October, we offer promotional packages for screening and mammograms. These checks always come with a free breast examination, which is an important opportunity to learn more about the patient’s medical history – whether they have had any acquaintance with the disease – and, in general, to build a broad medical picture of the patient, essential for dealing with a pathology as complex as that of breast cancer.
What makes you stand out from other private health centres?
From the point of view of services, I think one of our main strengths is how we listen to our patients. People who come to the Poliambulatorio Venere feel welcome immediately, as if they were “at home” and we have become a small piece of their family. We strive to build a relationship of trust with patients which is based on the highest levels of professionalism exhibited by our doctors.
Another aspect that we regard as essential concerns our choice of specialists, all of whom come from the most important hospitals in Rome and who, therefore, provide a point of reference for patients in the event that further diagnostic work or more involved analyses are required at hospital.
Even the choice of where, geographically, to establish the Health Centre was strategic: my family and I grew up in this area and we have, not unsurprisingly, close ties to it. The Centre was opened in a new commercial development zone, a stone’s throw from the junction to the main ring road. Looking at the essential services for the community, it seemed only right to offer the chance of medical care and health services in a multi-specialist, easily accessible centre.
… even the choice of where, geographically, to establish the Health Centre was strategic…
What factors guide you when deciding which diagnostic equipment to purchase?
In the choice of medical equipment, credit largely goes to my brother, for his technical skills, and to my father for his background and experience in radiology, essential to be able to assess possible alternatives and to make informed choices.
For each discipline covered, we have state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and the latest generation machines that provide high definition, superior quality images. We use, for example, a technologically advanced Bone Mineral Density (BMD) machine to offer services that not every private centre in Rome is able to provide; an open 0.4 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine which makes an examination more accessible to claustrophobic or overweight patients; and, last but not least, a Metaltronica digital mammography equipment Helianthus DBT – for some time now we have appreciated its diagnostic reliability and the quality of its mammogram images in 2D examinations for tomosynthesis analyses.
Finally, our assessment of medical equipment suppliers also considers the level and speed of maintenance and technical support services. In this respect, Metaltronica guarantees a well-established presence across the region, outstanding professionalism and availability to intervene, even at particular times on particular days, in order not to interfere with the scheduled diagnostic activities. And it offers a modular, digital mammogram system that allows later upgrades to be done and to add new examination functionality with the aim of achieving an increasingly accurate diagnosis.
… For each discipline covered, we have state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and the latest generation machines that provide high definition, superior quality images …
We thank Selene Blasi who, with her work and her outstanding team, reminded us of a few principles underlying the health system, whether public or private: the importance of prevention, starting with breast cancer, which remains the most widespread tumour found in women; the centrality of the patient, their needs and difficulties, as a basis for establishing an empathic relationship built on trust; and, finally, the acquisition of the latest generation diagnostic equipment, essential – together with the professionalism and skills of doctors – to be able to offer patients the highest quality and greatest accuracy in clinical examinations.
