Interreg NEXT MED Programme 

36 months (From Dec 2025 To Dec 2028) 

€ 2.999.000,00 

€ 2.489.170,00 (83% of the budget) 

Antonio Boccaccio, antonio.boccaccio@poliba.it  

University Hospital Consortium Corporation Polyclinic of Bari  (IT - https://www.sanita.puglia.it/web/policlinico-di-bari-ospedale-giovanni-xxiii ) 

SALAM (Social, sustAinable and incLusive heAlth care systems in Med area) is a project co-funded by the Interreg NEXT MED Programme, aimed at promoting more equitable access to healthcare services and strengthening the resilience of health systems across the Mediterranean area. 

Coordinated by the University Hospital Consortium Corporation Polyclinic of Bari and implemented together with partners from Italy, Spain, Lebanon and Jordan, the project brings together hospitals, universities and civil society organisations to respond in a concrete way to the challenges that still limit access to care in many territories, especially for the most vulnerable communities. 

At the core of the initiative is the transfer and integration of the HELIS Infarct.NET telecardiology platform, already developed and validated at European level through the Interreg PHASE project (funded under the Interreg IPA CBC Italy-Albania-Montenegro 2014–2020 Programme), within two reference hospital hubs in Lebanon and Jordan. These hubs will be connected to mobile medical units in order to extend healthcare services also to remote and fragile areas. 

Alongside the strengthening of telemedicine services, SALAM promotes training activities for healthcare professionals and caregivers, awareness-raising and community engagement initiatives. A central pillar of the project is represented by applied research and open innovation actions, structured within a Transnational Research Center that will serve as the methodological framework of the entire project. Within this collaborative environment, partner universities will work together to carry out research driven by the real healthcare needs emerging from the two hospital hubs. In this context, the Politecnico di Bari will actively contribute to the design of innovative biomedical solutions, with a specific focus on the development of flexible, user-friendly, low-cost and sustainable bio-devices, ensuring their accessibility and effective deployment in low-resource and vulnerable settings. This approach will foster cross-border knowledge exchange and co-development processes, in line with Open Innovation principles. 

Overall, the project seeks to contribute to reducing inequalities in access to care and to supporting more inclusive, integrated and people-centred models of healthcare. 

For more information, please visit the official project webpage: 

https://www.interregnextmed.eu/project-page/salam/about/