The ASL Novara area covers around 334,000 residents across 76 municipalities. Cancer incidence there closely follows the wider trend in Piedmont, remaining one of the leading causes of death locally, even as the rate has declined over the past twenty years thanks in large part to prevention.
The public health system already offers cancer screening through Progetto Prevenzione Serena, but not every resident finds it easy to access, particularly in smaller municipalities without suitable spaces for visits and health meetings. A service that comes to people, rather than the other way around, closes a real gap for the area's more fragile residents.
The project
The project doesn't replace the ASL's existing screening programme but complements it: a mobile clinic visits each municipality in turn, offering free checks and health promotion services close to home, reaching residents that current screening coverage misses and helping build a genuine culture of prevention across the area.
Alongside the checks themselves, the project shares practical information based on the European Code Against Cancer, helping residents understand what they can do for their own health, building a healthier relationship with illness, and encouraging greater participation in the screenings the public system already offers. Catching cancers earlier, when they are most treatable, is the direct result.
Who the project is for
The project is aimed at residents across all 76 municipalities of the ASL Novara area, reached in rotation through a dedicated day for each town, with particular attention to the area's most vulnerable citizens.
Project name: La prevenzione a portata di mano: un ambulatorio mobile a disposizione dei cittadini
Proposing organisation: Associazione Mimosa Amici del DH Oncologico di Borgomanero ODV
Area of intervention: Health & Welfare
Country: Italy