The fair dedicated to Italian healthcare returns in November

The Italian healthcare system is currently having to deal with conditions related to public health that have become priorities, such as the aging of the population, the increase in chronic diseases and the growing pressure on public resources. Starting from this perspective, it is clear how it is necessary to look at technological innovations as a useful tool to guarantee the balance and sustainability of the National Health Service. Furthermore, it is essential to create effective connections between all the actors of the system: from healthcare institutions to biomedical companies, from scientific research to territorial governance, to guarantee quality of care and accessibility for all citizens.

It is precisely in this direction that Welfair is moving, the sixth edition of the internationally certified fair of doing Sanità, which will take place from 4 to 7 November 2025 at Fiera Roma, with the title “The balance of Healthcare. Innovation: from producers of expenditure to tools for sustainability”, organized by Fiera Roma and B-Sanità.

The official presentation was held on Wednesday 28 May at the Sala del Parlamentino of the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy (MIMIT) ; the opening was entrusted to Roberto Luongo , Advisor for Internationalization and Made in Italy at MIMIT, Roberta Angelilli , Vice President of the Lazio Region and Councilor for Economic Development, Trade, Crafts, Industry, Internationalization and Pietro Piccinetti , President of the Internationalization Commission of AEFI - Association of Italian Exhibitions and Fairs.

Roberta Angelilli, underlined how Lazio is one of the champions of Made in Italy in the field of pharmaceuticals and life sciences, with over 12 billion in exports and 22 thousand employees; the Welfair fair, of which the Region is a partner, is fully part of the strategy of support for major events and internationalization. The initiative is very important for Lazio, given that it focuses on healthcare not only as a provider of services, but also as a research engine and catalyst for the clusters of excellence of our production system.

Improving the National Health Service

Welfair is the point of reference for the entire ecosystem of Italian healthcare, able to bring together the leaders of healthcare governance, scientific societies and the main companies in the medical technology sector. It is a unique opportunity for discussion and collaboration between all stakeholders, with the aim of contributing to the construction of a stronger, safer and more integrated National Health Service. The main purpose of the event, this year, will be precisely to create connections capable of creating a system for the healthcare of the future, with Governance as an essential point of connection, promoting the link between the NHS, Biomedical and Digital health and promoting prevention, healthy aging and sustainability.

The 2025 edition was presented by the scientific coordinators of Welfair, Enzo Chilelli and Giovanni Scapagnini and by Marinella D'Innocenzo , member of the fair's Scientific Committee.

English: “ We are used to seeing the NHS as a buyer and the eHealth and biomedical industry as simple suppliers. On the contrary, the challenge we are launching today in presenting the new edition of Welfair 2025 is to look at them together by creating a connection, as a single sector that strengthens the country system in some fundamental elements: exports; the effectiveness of healthcare investment; added value for patients and therapists – says Enzo Chilelli - Biomedical and Digital health are already highly innovative sectors, where both design and production require high standards of competence, precision and quality. In short, an excellence of Made in Italy as well as a model sector of industry 5.0. The medical devices sector in Italy generates a market worth 18.3 billion euros between exports and the domestic market and has 4,641 companies, which employ 117,607 people. In turn, Digital health has many national champions and attracts multinational companies, but it includes innovative startups, laboratories and research centers, throughout the Italian territory, active in the fields of big data and artificial intelligence applied to the health and digital health sector. A sector that is worth approximately 4 billion in Italy, 50 in Europe and over 1,000 in the world ”.

During Welfair we will try to foster relationships between the Hospitals of the future, AI and Digital Healthcare applied to the territories, telemedicine, governance and reorganization of hospital and territorial care, with particular attention to how the general directorates will guide organizational innovation.

“In recent years, Italy has lost almost two years of life expectancy and, since 2013, the curve has started to decline. But the most critical data concerns healthy life: today we live up to 80 years, but only just under 60 in good health. This means living with chronic diseases for about 20 years, with heavy repercussions also on public spending. By 2050, one in three elderly people could be affected by neurodegenerative diseases. The good news is that we can intervene: correct lifestyles reduce the risk of dementia by over 45%. For this reason, in the next edition of Welfair, we will give space to primary prevention, nutrition and health promotion as strategic levers for sustainability” – says Giovanni Scapagnini .

“One of the macro-themes that the sixth edition of Welfair will deal with is governance and sustainability – underlines Marinella D'Innocenzo -. At the center of the discussion will be territorial assistance, telemedicine and, above all, technological and digital innovation, which will represent the transversal thread of this edition. We will discuss with the General Managements of healthcare companies not only technologies, but organizational transformation: because innovation is, first of all, the ability to rethink processes and drive change. The working tables will focus on a new corporate leadership, capable of integrating the managerial dimension with data-based governance. Only in this way will it be possible to monitor, evaluate and sustainably direct the advancement of digitalization within the healthcare system”.

The opportunity to discuss highly topical issues

The 2025 edition of Welfair will address numerous topics, all of which are highly topical and have a direct impact on governance, quality, safety, inclusiveness and sustainability in social and healthcare assistance and technological innovation.

Public and private decision makers, professionals and institutional representatives will discuss these topics, sharing skills, experiences and solutions for an increasingly innovative and effective health service. Alongside them, scientific societies, professional categories and companies, which will contribute with specialist insights, round tables and meetings scheduled during the four days of the event.

During the presentation at MIMIT, Sandro Michelini , President of the Lipedema World Alliance and leading angiologist for the study of lipedema worldwide, announced that, from 5 to 8 November 2025, Fiera Roma will host, simultaneously and contiguously with Welfair, the Lipedema World Congress, a world congress dedicated to lipedema , a chronic and still little-known pathology that mainly affects women (up to 18% of the world's female population), causing painful accumulations of adipose tissue in the legs, buttocks and arms.

Speakers and delegations from over 30 countries around the world are expected to gather with the aim of networking, sharing knowledge and advancing the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

The debate was also attended by Giovanni Spera , Endocrinologist, former President of Sisdca, Italian Society for the Study of Eating Disorders, Full Professor of Internal Medicine, Department of Experimental Medicine at the University of Rome "La Sapienza" from 2000 to 2010, Lieutenant General Carlo Catalano , Inspector General of Military Health - Defence General Staff and Tiziano Melchiorre , Secretary General of IAPB Italia ETS.

Finally, Immacolata De Vivo , professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Head of the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, as well as one of the world's leading experts in the field of molecular epidemiology and cancer genetics, and Eugenio Luigi Iorio , professor of biology of aging at UNIUBE University, in the Brazilian city of Uberlandia, and scientific director of the Redox Center in Tokyo, have announced their participation in Welfair 2025.

For more information, you can visit the dedicated Welfair 2025 website.