In an era where medicine is increasingly called upon to face complex challenges, clinical research stands as an essential tool to ensure quality, effectiveness, and safety in healthcare practices.
Research is no longer a field reserved for a select few specialists: today, all healthcare professionals are expected to develop skills in collecting, interpreting, and applying scientific evidence. The ability to critically reflect on one’s work, analyze clinical data, compare approaches, and measure outcomes is what transforms care into a truly dynamic process, one that continuously evolves and improves. Doing research means cultivating a critical mindset—one capable of asking meaningful questions rooted in everyday clinical experience.
It is within this perspective that the training offered by the Healthcare Master’s programs at the University of Parma is positioned. Here, clinical research is not a separate activity from practice, but an integrated tool for learning and professional growth. Through project work, thesis development, methodological workshops, and research mentoring, students are guided along a scientific development path that is practice-oriented and aimed at solving real-world problems.
Promoting research also means fostering a cultural shift within healthcare organizations: moving beyond the automatic repetition of procedures, valuing best practices, and critically addressing the limitations of existing models. A healthcare system grounded in research is a system that is fairer, more transparent, and more effective. In a socio-health system that aspires to quality, safety, and human-centered care, healthcare professionals cannot simply apply knowledge—they must also help generate it. This is why the Healthcare Master’s programs are committed to training professionals capable of producing knowledge.
Understanding the fundamentals of quantitative and qualitative research, designing a study, critically reading scientific articles, using outcome and quality indicators, participating in research networks—these are just some of the essential skills required today by those working in clinical, educational, and healthcare management settings. Training in research means contributing to the construction of professional knowledge, improving care, and—above all—giving voice to people’s real needs.