Roberto D’Amico

Alessandro Liberati

Received: 5 March 2012Accepted: 5 March 2012Published online: 27 March 2012� Copyright jointly held by Springer andESICM 2012

‘‘A better collaboration amongpatients, researchers, decision-makersand national health systems is neededto improve health research’’. Thesewords describe the essence of Ales-sandro Liberati’s way of thinking.Alessandro, 57, one of the leadingepidemiologists in Italy, passed awayon 1 January 2012. He had beendiagnosed with multiple myelomamore than 10 years ago. The experi-ence of the disease, whichcharacterised the last decade of hislife, reinforced his conviction thatresearch findings should be moreaccessible to patients and to peoplewho make decisions about a patient’shealth.

Alessandro graduated from theUniversity of Milan’s Medical Schoolin 1978 and began working as aresearch fellow in the Laboratory ofClinical Pharmacology at the MarioNegri Institute. He spent 1 year at theHarvard School of Public Healthstudying epidemiology and statistics.While there, he developed two inter-ests that he pursued for the rest of hislife: evidence synthesis (systematicreviews and meta-analyses) and the

importance of a patient’s perspective.In these fields, he soon became one ofthe most prominent scientists in theworld.

In 1994 he founded and directedthe Italian Cochrane Centre. Ales-sandro was one of the pioneers ofevidence synthesis, analysing ran-domised controlled trials of healthinterventions in oncology and inten-sive care medicine. One of his mainprojects was the systematic review ofthe assessment of the effects of anti-biotic prophylaxis in critically illpatients (Selective Decontaminationof the Digestive Tract, Trialists Col-laborative Group, 1993).

In 1998, he was appointed Asso-ciate Professor of Medical Statisticsin the Faculty of Medicine at theUniversity of Modena. In 2004,Alessandro was chosen to drive anintegrated research system, bringingtogether medical schools and publichospitals in Emilia Romagna, a northItalian region. Since 2005 he hadbeen a member of Italy’s NationalCommittee for Health Research andof the Research and DevelopmentCommittee of the Italian DrugAgency.

Over the years he becameincreasingly frustrated by the way thebest interests of the patients and the

public were not the principal driversof the medical research agenda. Buthe was a real fighter, who did not giveup easily. He always worked towardsestablishing a strategic allianceamong all the stakeholders (patients,clinicians, policy-makers) and theacademic and institutional research-ers. And you could be sure thatwhenever Alessandro was involved,these principles were safe.

Having to find a common threadconnecting all his many interests,research as a civil passion is thetheme that characterised his life.Research was, for Alessandro, ameans to improve the world and theactual state of things. He was awarethat changes happen slowly but, withcontinuous commitment, they do takeplace. Being close to Alessandro wascontagious, and those who had thegood fortune to work with him wereeventually infected.

The message he leaves us is thatthere is no research without thecommitment of doing things that areuseful and important for people,patients and their relatives.

We like to think that his messages,his thoughts, his example, his being ascientist, friend and father, and eventhe way he faced his disease duringthe last 10 years, will help all of us tobetter manage the tasks that we willencounter in the future.

The best way to remember him isto continue his work, pursuing it withthe same commitment, passion anddetermination that have always char-acterised him.

Alessandro leaves behind his wife,Mariangela, and two daughters, Elisaand Valeria.

R. D’Amico ())Via del Pozzo 71, 41100 Modena, Italye-mail: roberto.damico@unimore.it

Intensive Care Med (2012) 38:912DOI 10.1007/s00134-012-2527-y OBITUARY