Search for a command to run...
a. Communication (3). Studies in this category focus on interventions aimed at strengthening health communication as a strategic tool for health promotion and for safeguarding equitable access to social and healthcare services. iv.Professional aspects (5). This category encompasses studies that explore defining characteristics of specific professional profiles, examining their competencies, scope of practice, and potential evolution in response to changes within healthcare systems. v.Training (4). The articles included in this category present studies that evaluate the impact of training programs designed for HCPs, with particular attention to their effectiveness in enhancing competencies, supporting professional development, and promoting alignment with evidence-based standards of practice. It is interesting to observe that most of the identified categories (four out of six) are not attributable to a single professional profile but rather are cross-functional across different healthcare professions. This highlights the inherently multidisciplinary and collaborative nature of the contributions included in this Research Topic. The relevance and impact of the articles included in this Research Topic are reflected in the steadily increasing number of citations they continue to receive, confirming the scientific and practical significance of the topic addressed. An in-depth analysis of the article within the "Organizational contributions" category demonstrates the strong commitment of HCPs to organizational research. These studies show that HCPs act as promoters of improvement and optimization initiatives aimed at enhancing efficiency and effectiveness. In doing so, they contribute directly to strengthening the quality and safety of care, as well as to reinforcing their strategic role within the governance of social and health services. Drawing from their frontline experience, these professionals propose solutions that go beyond purely technical interventions designed to address operational issues within a single unit or hospital. Instead, they promote improvement and optimization processes at all levels of healthcare governance. Their contributions operate bottom-up, influencing organizational development at local, national, and even international levels. Moreover, research in the health economics and management domain provides HCPs with opportunities to engage in international comparisons regarding the performance of leadership and managerial functions (1). These roles are increasingly defined within globally shared frameworks, helping to overcome challenges related to the heterogeneity in how professional roles are expressed and regulated across different countries. By situating their work within an international context, HCPs contribute to a more harmonized and strategically aligned understanding of their evolving responsibilities in health systems worldwide.A substantial number of submissions focus on Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) to the extent that a dedicated category was created to accommodate them. These studies aim to share, within the international scientific community, the diverse approaches through which EBP principles are implemented in real-world healthcare settings. While Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) can be more readily applied to specific clinical conditions or clearly defined interventions-given its grounding in validated research evidence-the operationalization of broader EBP principles is far more complex. Translating EBM into standardized protocols and procedures that can be consistently implemented across different countries is particularly challenging. This difficulty arises not only from the varying degrees of professional autonomy granted to healthcare practitioners in different national contexts, but also from the heterogeneity in the structure, governance, and management of health systems at all levels. Therefore, there is no universally unambiguous definition of many healthcare professional profiles(2), particularly within the allied health professions (3)Although there is a generally shared international understanding of the roles and responsibilities of professions such as nurses or midwives, this clarity does not extend to many other professionals working in rehabilitation, diagnostics, and prevention. Even within the European context alone, the number and classification of recognized health professions differ significantly from country to country. Furthermore, when the same professional title exists across multiple countries, the scope of practice and associated responsibilities often vary-sometimes substantially. In this context, it becomes essential for HCPs to demonstrate how the protocols and procedures they implement within their local settings align with internationally recognized guidelines. Providing such evidence not only strengthens the scientific robustness of their practice but also contributes to greater transparency, comparability, and harmonization across health systems (4).Awareness of the specific role of each health profession in the context of intervention and, more generally, of the contribution he can make to the international scientific community to which it belongs, is the basis of all the papers collected in the "Professional aspects" category. It is precisely the professional skills that give uniqueness and dignity to each profession, making it indispensable in a multi-professional and multidisciplinary work team. Only by assuming this awareness by most representatives of a profession it is possible to assess the state of the art of the profession itself, or how it can keep up with the frenetic evolution that characterizes the health sector. By identifying critical issues and strengths, as well as opportunities and threats, it is possible to develop solutions that make professions progress over time, ensuring their evergreater affirmation and growth over time (5,6).Continuous training is certainly the simplest intervention that allows HCPs to keep up with the times, i.e. operating in line with EBM and EBP. For this to happen, however, it is necessary to verify the effectiveness of these interventions over time and, where the results are not fully satisfactory, to introduce and validate the use of educational innovations (for example psychometric evaluation, moral judgments or alternative communicative approaches) to guarantee the pursuit of the set objective. Manuscript included in the "Training" category give evidence of the continuous attention to training not only of students in the health professions but also of professionals (3). For example, starting from joint training in areas of common interest, the collaborative spirit of individual professionals in multi-professional and multidisciplinary working groups can be strengthened and the organizational and management models of the various operational settings can be oriented towards promoting it. In this regard, an area of interest common to all health professions, which bypasses the differences in recognition of professions in individual national contexts and at the same time enhances the specific contribution of each professional, is the development of information and educational campaigns aimed at the general population or specific targets. The category "Educative initiatives" (7)and the subcategory "Communication" (8) collected manuscript properly referred to the promotion of information and educational campaigns by HCPs. In fact, in daily activity, each professional must be able to effectively inform and, in specific cases, to educate users on the optimal use of the social and health service they provide. In health systems all over the world, this expertise is systematized by directly entrusting health professionals with the implementation of information and education campaigns so that users take an active role in the processes of integrated care in line with the recommendations of the WHO (9). These interventions serve a dual purpose: they not only help users navigate the various services more effectively and use them appropriately but also contribute to making services more "user-friendly" by fostering the development of health-literate healthcare organizations (10). At a time when social and health systems are confronted with major global challenges-such as climate change, geopolitical tensions, population aging, and rapid digital innovation-individuals increasingly risk feeling overwhelmed and disoriented. In designing public information and education campaigns aimed not only at protecting health but also at promoting overall wellbeing, it is therefore essential to consider people's emotional states and psychological resilience.In this context, HCPs -who are daily engaged in supporting the psycho-physical balance of the individuals they assist-are uniquely positioned to contribute, within multiprofessional teams, to the development of information and educational initiatives that are effective not only from a technical and scientific perspective, but also from a relational and psychosocial one (11).Through this Research Topic, the Editors believe they have achieved their primary objective: to highlight and strengthen the recognition of the active role played by health professionals-particularly those belonging to the allied health disciplines-in healthcare management, research-intervention processes, and the introduction of innovation within health systems. In doing so, the Issue has brought to the forefront the commitment of allied health professionals as key drivers of cultural change in integrated social and healthcare sectors, fostering transformation both within and beyond healthcare organizations. The interventions and experiences documented in these contributions demonstrate how proactive, integrated, and increasingly standardized models of care can be implemented, with the primary aim of protecting and promoting individual health, and only subsequently, when necessary, providing treatment. This perspective reflects a shift from a reactive model of care to one centred on prevention, health promotion, and integrated responsibility.Every healthcare professional is therefore called upon to contribute at all organizational levels of the health system and throughout every phase of the care pathway. This requires synergistic collaboration with colleagues and the implementation of mature and well-structured task-shifting processes, grounded in mutual recognition of competencies and shared accountability. However, the full realization of this vision remains partially hindered by the persistent lack of clarity and uniformity in the definition of professional profiles across different contexts. Variability in professional responsibilities and degrees of autonomy continues to limit the possibility of fully standardizing practice at the international level. Addressing this structural challenge represents a crucial step toward consolidating the strategic role of all health professions in the ongoing evolution of health systems.