Global Dermatology

Aldo Morrone
GLOBAL DERMATOLOGY
Medical research and mathematical logic in Migration Medicine
MNL Casa Editrice
Bologna, 2007
(In Italian)

This first volume is the result of years of clinical and epidemiological work in the field of infectious and dermatological diseases in Italy, in particular with persons coming from “other” cultures, and in developing countries.
It is our experience that we wish to relate: years of scientific know-how in constant evolution, of daily work with patients and colleagues, of collaborations, gestures and emotions. The need to give our work a practical style arises from the realities encountered in developing countries, where the access to diagnostic instruments and to new or more complex treatments is inadequate or more difficult, where the medical personnel is insufficient and expert advisers are almost inexistent, and where the greatest part of cutaneous and infectious diseases is diagnosed and treated by health assistants. Within this situation the experience is the factor which can best guide the health operator in the process of diagnosis and therapeutic proposal. It is therefore extremely important, for those who deal with the health problems in developing countries, to refer – in their diagnostic and therapeutic choices – to what is called in the western countries Evidence Based Medicine (EBM). EBM is the recognition of a tight and functional association between research and clinical practice.
But there has been another problem: how could we communicate our experience in order to make it useful? What could we do to make our work represent an auxiliary instrument for the doctor and a guide for the health assistants? We found an answer in the fuzzy logic, which allowed us to define a model of pathology reflecting the daily work of a doctor with his uncertainties and his decisions.
This work is therefore the result of a link between research, clinical practice and mathematical logic, building a model of pathology composed of various elements.