Tuscany School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience

FLORENCE SUMMER SCHOOL

Iocari serio et studiosissime ludere

Marsilio Ficino (1433 – 1499)

c/o Clinical Neurosciences ONLUS

Piazza V. Veneto 4

Firenze, 50123

Italy

The Florence Summer School is a CME course organized every summer since 2003 by the Tuscany School of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience and is open to psychiatrists, pharmacologists, neurologists and child psychiatrists. It has always been attended by international speakers and participants coming from Canada, UK, the USA, Switzerland, Finland, Lebanon, Israel and Italy, which makes this school a truly international event. The School earns average 17 CME credits every year. Topics change year to year, but the focus has always been put on translational psychiatry, pharmacology and cutting edge technology.

The founding faculty is composed of Dr. Joseph Zohar, Dr. Larry Koran, Dr. Giovan Battista Cassano, Dr. Eric Hollander, Dr. Paolo Castrogiovanni and Dr. Stefano Pallanti. Dr. Pallanti has been serving as a coordinator and an organizer of the school activity since its start.

The philosophy of the school is:

• Improving individual skills and cultural understanding of clinical neurosciences, more specifically psychiatry and pharmacology

In 2012 the Florence Summer School celebrates the 9^th annual course. Having reached our first objective of firmly establishing the school activity, the Faculty is determined, at this turning point, to expand educational offers with a broader residential program, giving support to minority and developing country attendants.

Our next objective is:

• Organizing multiple courses throughout the year

• Expanding educational offers

• Attracting attendants from all over the world

The Clinical Neurosciences Onlus, a NON PROFIT organization with a certified public balance, has been supporting the financial and logistic aspects of the summer school since its first session. The Clinical Neurosciences ONLUS collaborates in scientific efforts with the University of Florence (Italy).

A core aspect of the Florence Summer School is combining Clinical Pharmacology with pre/clinical and translational educational aims. Teaching excellence is a priority of the school and the faculty put a large and careful effort into their lectures and practical teaching. In order to reach the aims, we have set the following goals:

1. Attendants will become knowledgeable about both basic and advanced mechanisms related to the

beneficial and adverse effects of pharmaceutical agents (drugs) and pharmacology, physiology and toxicology.

2. Attendants will be able to design, perform and interpret research related to the clinical

pharmacological, physiological and toxicological effects of drugs. This will lead to more

effective therapeutic treatments of diseases.

3. Attendants will be able to independently prepare and submit competitive research proposals in the areas of pharmacology, physiology and toxicology.

4. Attendants will learn how to communicate their research or teaching efforts in order to maximize their individual impact on societal needs.

This initiative was originally organized only with financial support of the attendants' subscriptions and support from Clinical Neurosciences ONLUS. It started, little by little, to collect some support from local pharmaceutical companies through un-restricted educational grants. Speakers have offered their contribution without honorarium, and received only reimbursement of expenses related to travel.

The Summer School is a growing initiative both in scientific contents and in numbers of participants, and we are sure that the support from private and public authorization will help this course to reach the level of “International School of Neuropharmacology”, by increasing the number of annual courses and by attracting attendants not only from Europe and America but from all over the world.

Here is a summery of the annual CME Florence Summer School sessions: