In recent decades, narrative medicine has become one of the most powerful languages for restoring humanity to care and for building bridges between science and people’s lived experience. On this path, the ISTUD Institute has played a central role in Italy, helping to develop a culture of care grounded in listening, reflection, and narration.
From Organizational Cultures to Cultures of Care
Founded in 1970, ISTUD is the first independent Italian institute for managerial education. From its origins, guided by scholars such as sociologist Pasquale Gagliardi — author of Le imprese come culture — the institute has emphasized the human and symbolic dimensions of organizations.
Gagliardi argued that quantitative data alone were not enough to understand reality: to truly grasp how organizations function, one must also explore stories, meanings, and shared values.
Narrative methods thus became, as early as the 1970s, tools for inquiry and growth, capable of bringing organizational cultures to light and transforming them into communities of practice.
This humanistic and systemic vision of work became the fertile ground from which, in 2002, the Health & Wellbeing Area emerged — the branch of ISTUD that brings narrative into medicine.
The Birth of Narrative Medicine at ISTUD
The Health & Wellbeing Area was created with the goal of humanizing healthcare and integrating the humanities with evidence-based medicine.
Narration thus becomes a method of research, training, and innovation: a way to understand the lived experience of patients, caregivers, and professionals, and to transform these experiences into knowledge that can improve the quality of care.
According to ISTUD, narrative medicine is:
- Democratic, because it values the experience of every voice involved in care;
- Integrated with evidence-based medicine (EBM), combining data and stories;
- Ecological, linking individual health to collective and environmental wellbeing;
- Rooted in real narratives, which become tools for knowledge and change.
Training: Learning to Listen, Write, and Share
Training is one of ISTUD’s key contributions to narrative medicine.
The institute offers programs that teach healthcare professionals how to turn listening and writing into instruments of care, rediscovering the value of relationships and reflection.
Some of the most significant initiatives include:
- The Master in Health and Applied Narrative Medicine, aimed at healthcare professionals, educators, and social workers, combining clinical sciences and the humanities;
- ECM courses and short seminars dedicated to narrative practices in healthcare;
- The Summer Interludes, international online seminars led by experts such as Maria Giulia Marini and John Launer, exploring the relationship between stories, care, and the medical humanities.
During the workshops, participants learn how to collect and interpret illness narratives, but also how to reinterpret their own professional and personal experiences.
Writing, listening, and sharing become reflective practices that help give meaning to care and rekindle motivation in one’s role.
Research: When Stories Generate Knowledge
Beyond training, ISTUD has given a fundamental contribution to the development of scientific research based on narrative methods.
Since the early 2000s, researchers in the Health & Wellbeing Area have used narrative methods to explore the experiences of patients and professionals in fields such as palliative care, severe asthma, breast cancer, chronic and rare diseases, mental health, and, more recently, COVID-19.
Narration is used as a rigorous qualitative method, integrated with quantitative data, to understand not only the illness but also the life surrounding it.
These projects have resulted in more than 50 international articles and publications, books such as Health Humanities for Quality of Care in Times of COVID-19 (2022) and Nonviolent Communication and Narrative Medicine for Promoting Sustainable Health (2024), and collaborations with hospitals, universities, scientific societies, and healthcare organizations.
A Transformative Impact
The impact of narrative medicine in ISTUD’s work is measured in cultural and human terms.
For patients and caregivers, storytelling means being heard, finding meaning, and feeling part of their care journey.
For professionals, narrative opens spaces for awareness and regenerates the relationship between technique and humanity.
For healthcare organizations, it represents a tool for improving internal communication, team collaboration, and the overall quality of care.
Today ISTUD is recognized as a reference center for Narrative Medicine in Italy, accredited by the Ministry of Education (MIUR) and connected with international institutions such as the Centre for Humanities and Health at King’s College London.
Through its online journal Chronicles of Narrative Medicine, which counts over one hundred issues, and through the foundation of the European Narrative Medicine Society (EUNAMES) — recognized by WHO-Europe in 2020 — ISTUD continues to spread the value of narrative medicine as both a scientific and humanistic discipline.
Conclusion: Stories as Engines of Change
ISTUD’s journey shows that narrative medicine is not a poetic gesture, but a scientific and educational method that unites knowledge and compassion.
It integrates clinical, human, and organizational competencies, transforming training and research into shared pathways for growth.
Listening to stories means understanding people. And understanding people means improving medicine.
This is the lesson ISTUD carries forward every day: stories heal, and to heal is also to tell.