Technology and empathy: the new narrative of care with Esaote and PERSONE

The challenges facing contemporary medicine are not just technical. The real challenge lies in maintaining the human dimension of care in the age of artificial intelligence, predictive algorithms, and increasingly sophisticated machines. How can this complexity be conveyed without losing its essence? How can we communicate innovation in a way that considers emotions?

Questions like these have led to an unprecedented collaboration between Esaote, Italy’s leading manufacturer of medical imaging equipment and a world leader in the field, and PERSONE Magazine, which has always focused its medical storytelling on patients and their families. It is a blend of technology and humanity, precision and care, which introduces a new way of discussing medicine. We talked about this new project and this new way of communicating technology with Franco Fontana, CEO of Esaote. 

“Two years ago, we underwent a rebranding process. We asked ourselves–and our stakeholders–what our identity was and how we could express it in order to stand out in a highly competitive environment,” Fontana explains. “After conducting this analysis, we chose health with care as our tagline. At Esaote, we define care as committing to technological advancement while embracing a caring, compassionate, and emotionally engaged approach to our daily activities.”

This approach is more than just a commercial slogan. “As technology producers and imaging specialists, we have a strong sense of responsibility for our actions in the healthcare sector,” Fontana adds. “This is an industry that sets itself apart from other sectors. Our machines play an important role in the entire care pathway, from diagnosis and treatment to patient follow-up.”

This awareness translates into a clear business philosophy: “We are determined to play a role in advancing the accuracy of diagnoses and in providing healthcare professionals with tools that can deliver the best possible patient care.”

This vision led to the creation of an ambitious communication project: a collaboration between Esaote’s MORE Blog and PERSONE Magazine to talk about healthcare technology through the stories of the people who work with it and those for whom it is intended – the patients. “In this spirit, we have decided to communicate in a more empathetic and narrative way,” Fontana explains. “We want to be closer to all the people who work and collaborate with us, including employees, physicians, patients and technology partners.”

This approach is innovative: rather than starting with technical complexity and working toward applications, it begins with life stories to demonstrate how technology can be used for care purposes. Two channels, one mission: helping people understand that all technological innovations share the same purpose of improving people’s lives.

“We thought this project could help people feel more confident when approaching technology, which is often a ‘barrier’ in the care pathway,” points out Esaote’s CEO. The goal is to make it clear that, “thanks to the research and development work that has already been done and the application of highly sophisticated tools and solutions that are extremely helpful for healthcare providers, patients can now enjoy greater peace of mind and comfort during their diagnostic experience, all in less time.”

The project will focus on five key thematic areas, each of which will represent a universe of stories waiting to be told:

Interventional radiology: image-guided surgery allows surgeons to perform surgical operations with extreme precision, transforming formerly invasive procedures into safer ones that allow patients to recover faster. 

Urology and orthopedics: specializations that literally change people’s lives by restoring dignity and improving quality of life through increasingly early diagnosis and less invasive interventions.

Gender medicine: an approach that recognizes the biological and social differences between men and women in order to develop technologies that take gender-specific factors into account during diagnosis and treatment.

Narrative medicine: storytelling serves as a therapeutic tool that helps physicians and patients work together to develop care pathways through more informed and active participation.

Accessibility and sustainability: technologies specifically designed to make care accessible to everyone by breaking down geographical, economic and physical barriers.

“We want to do our best to show people what we do and encourage them to see things from a different perspective. This is something that is very clear to us, but which can be communicated in various ways,” Fontana explains. The goal is not only to communicate, but also to adopt a strategic approach: to position Esaote as a pioneer in the “technical humanities”, combining technological excellence with humanistic sensibilities.

“Our communication approach therefore extends our focus from the product to the people who use it, whether they are physicians or patients,” the CEO adds. “In this scenario, it is the people and their relationships that form the foundation of the narrative, conveying empathy, sensitivity and care.”

It is a paradigm shift that aims to establish a new dialogue with all stakeholders: clinicians, whose work will be recognized for its complexity, patients, who will be able to better understand diagnostic pathways, and partners, who will share a common vision of healthcare innovation.

“We believe that emphasizing these aspects is important in order to add value to the health sector as well,” Fontana stressed. The aim is to demonstrate that diagnostic technologies have a far greater impact than just technical performance; they also affect people’s quality of life and the efficiency of healthcare systems.

“Now more than ever, I believe it is important not to neglect the narrative aspect – that is, the ability to convey “safe” information that helps patients to better understand the healthcare system and how to navigate it,” Fontana concludes.

This project is so much more than just a communication strategy: it is an invitation to embark on a journey into the world of contemporary medicine, as experienced by those dealing with the challenges of providing care and receiving treatment on a daily basis. It is a journey that takes us from stories about people to gaining an understanding of technology, while demonstrating that the most authentic innovation is one that never loses sight of its ultimate purpose: people’s well-being.

Over the next few months, we will have the opportunity to explore this fascinating topic together through the pages of Esaote’s MORE Magazine and PERSONE Magazine. Here, each diagnostic solution tells a story, each diagnosis unveils a world, and each technological innovation offers the potential for treatment and brings hope.

Ultimately, we can expect medicine to become more precise and humane in the future. Esaote is committed to keeping this promise, one story at a time.

Angelica Giambelluca
Editor-in-Chief of PERSONE Magazine, professional journalist since 2009