Chronicity

Dagmar Rinnenburger is a German Physician, living in Rome since 30 years, specialised in pulmonary medicine and allergology with a long experience in german and then Italian hospitals in the field of pulmonary medicine. She worked in respiratory rehabilitation and patient education and then in pulmonary intensive care in the San Camillo Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in Rome. In particular, she has treated patients with respiratory insufficiency caused by neuromuscular problems such as amytrophic lateral sclerosis or end stage COPD. Her particular attention was given to shared decision making in end stage settings and she has always been interested in the improvement of communication between patient and doctor. She teaches as a guest professor in the Unicamillus Medical School and tries to focus on chronicity in the first years of medical education.

• Stories from a world where everyone can enter, and where many already reside.- Chronic / Acute: two opposite scenarios?.- The burden on chronicity.- The strain of being chronically ill.- The strain of treating chronic patients.- How to treat the sick and, above all, where?.- The rainbow of places of care disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.- The epidemiological shift from acute to chronic in India.- Asthma can be lethal (but it is also possible to live with it).- Education as therapy: a history of failure?.- Primary care, incremental care and initiative anticipatory healthcare.- Chronic meets chronic (when doctors are dangerous).- Chronic seeks chronic: the opportunities of Web 2.0.- The decline of chronic illness towards the end of life.- If chronic illness works with palliative care.- In the spotlight or behind the scenes?.- In conclusion.