Innovation and impact, MIHMEP shares in the success of the 2021 Vivisalute Award

Making a difference in people’s health and their lives. This is certainly a common denominator of the projects that received the Vivisalute Award on 16 November last; ranging from an app involving patients in data collection for clinical trials to a groundbreaking nanoparticle system for releasing drugs into the body, or care for the incurably sick. But it is not the only point they have in common: another is MIHMEP - Master of International Health Care Management, Economics and Politics, where five of the winners share the same educational background.

The Vivisalute Award acknowledges individuals, companies, associations and public and private entities. The prize goes to outstanding contributions that generate social value in the fields of research, sustainability and health protection as well as social and welfare services. This year, alumni of different MIHMEP editions participated directly as creators, founders or organizers in three of the projects selected for the prize: 

• The PatchAI App, created by Alessandro Monterosso, Filip Ivancic and Kumara Prasad Palanivel (MIHMEP 2017), founders of the digital health startup of the same name (recently acquired by the multinational pharmaceutical company Alira Health) designs smart digital solutions to actively engage patients in their own treatment processes. The PatchAI app is a sort of virtual patient assistant that promotes adherence to therapeutic protocols through the collection of clinical data and real-time interaction, and thus improves patients’ health and provides useful information for clinical research.
• Francesco Bracotti (MIHMEP 2020, currently at the GlaxoSmithKline Italy Cancer Treatment unit) for his invention of NanoMugs, the vector nanoparticles that distribute drugs more efficiently through the body. Both Bracotti and Monterosso were also included in Forbes Italia magazine’s 2020 list of the 100 most influential under-30s in our country.
• Maddalena Floriani (MIHMEP 2017), the third generation at the helm of the Floriani Foundation, received the “Social Impact” award for the Foundation’s work in assisting incurable patients and spreading palliative care that addresses all aspects of the patient’s suffering, not only physical but also psychological, spiritual and social.

The Vivisalute Awards are awarded by a Scientific Committee including Dea D’Aprile, President of Vivisalute Lombardy and Dean of the Unimeier Popular University in Milano, Elio Borgonovi, President of CERGAS, and Elena Gelosa, Director of the Bocconi Alumni Community.

“Having an aspirational model who has produced, is producing and will produce tangible changes in people’s health is, for a young person, something that makes you better as a professional and as a person,” Bracotti said referring to the “formative” impact of this award, but also to his experience as a MIHMEP participant.



SDA Bocconi School of Management