Recently in this journal Riva and Cesana reported on the origin and evolution of hospitals in Europe [1]. In this frame they described the pioneering vision of the Duke of Sforza, who during his rule of the city of Milan in the late Middle Age chose to build afresh a Maggiore Hospital with the goal to care and cure the ill citizens and make them again active and productive members of the municipal community. This model, that pioneered the concept of welfare, was continued and developed across the centuries to result nowadays into a research and teaching hospital, which is currently second in the rank provided yearly by the Italian Ministry of Health (and first among the public hospitals).
