The MeS Laboratory changes its name and institutional image

The MeS Laboratory – Management and Healthcare of the Institute of Management of the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies is changing its name and strengthening its identity and mission: from 2026, the new name – also featured in the revamped institutional communication – will be Management and Healthcare Laboratory.

This evolution is also reflected in the new logo. The font has been modernized and the acronym MeS is inserted into a sun, a symbol of orientation: the rays, represented by histograms, recall the evidence that guides the development of new visions and the ability to generate value through a solid methodological approach.

“After 20 years of activity and research in healthcare management, we came up with a new logo and a new name in line with our founding values – data and evidence, scientific rigor – reinforcing a broader and more generative vision of health,” explains Milena Vainieri, professor and head of the MeS Laboratory.

Improving the health of individuals and communities does not only mean increasing the performance of the healthcare system. The main evidence shows that actions directly attributable to the healthcare system have a limited impact on overall health, estimated at around 20-30%. At the same time, the pressures and challenges facing the system have become increasingly complex, requiring not only an improvement—and in some cases the maintenance—of the services offered, but also a profound ability to rethink the organization and management of healthcare and social-healthcare pathways.

Health increasingly means activating communities in a broad sense, promoting intersectoral strategies capable of preventing social hardship from turning into health problems and, at the same time, enhancing the role of communities in making the healthcare system more humane and sustainable. With this in mind, in recent years the laboratory has undertaken a series of analyses and projects aimed at understanding how to activate and measure community building processes within the healthcare system and how to address the challenge of long-term care posed by the profound demographic changes currently underway, through organizational innovations and learning mechanisms that involve different levels of governance of the healthcare, social-healthcare, and social systems.

The basis remains an evidence-based approach, generated in part through advanced data science and artificial intelligence techniques, accompanied by the analysis of the preferences, decisions, and behaviors of patients, professionals, managers, and policy makers, considered essential levers for accompanying and activating change.