ArticleInternal and emergency medicine2026
The economics of complexity: internal medicine as the backbone of hospitals and guardian of health.
Article in Internal and emergency medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The Italian Servizio Sanitario Nazionale (SSN) and other universal healthcare systems face increasing pressure from aging, multimorbidity, malnutrition, obesity and the widespread consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFS). Hospitals struggle not only with resources but with managing complexity. Medicine (IM) wards absorb most acute admissions and represent the hidden backbone of hospital functioning. Delayed discharges, hospital malnutrition, and obesity-related meta-inflammation illustrate systemic inefficiency and escalating costs. Evidence shows that internist-led interventions, including systematic nutritional screening, integrated obesity care, and the use of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), improve patient outcomes and hospital efficiency. The evolving role of IM requires combining holistic oversight with subspecialty competence (cardio-pulmonary, neuro-internal medicine, onco-internal medicine, gastro-metabolism, geriatrics, immunology, an infectious diseases). As guardians of health, internists must extend their role beyond acute care to prevention regulation of UPFs, and sustainable patient transitions. In conclusion, strengthening Internal Medicine is essential for preserving universal healthcare. Internists-generalist in vision, subspecialist in competence, ultrasonographer in practice-are both the economic and ethical backbone of hospitals and the guardians of public health.
Indexed as
Identifiers
41572064What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.