Italy’s Ssn (Sistema sanitario nazionale, i.e. National health system) is full of acronims. This glossary aims to help non Italian readers to better understand them.

Asl: Azienda sanitaria locale, i.e. local health district

AO: Azienda ospedaliera, i.e. hospital

AOU: Azienda ospedaliera universitaria, i.e. a university hospital

Ats: Azienda di tutela della salute, Asl are named like this in Lombardy

Asst: Azienda socio sanitaria territoriale, basicly an hospital, also only in Lombardy

Ausl: Azienda unità sanitaria locale. Asl are called like this in Tuscany, Emilia Romagna and Aosta Valley

Usl: Unità sanitaria locale, basicly an Asl. They are called like this in Umbria

Azienda Ulss: Azienda Unità locale socio-sanitaria is what they call Asl in Veneto

Asp: Azienda sanitaria provinciale, i.e. Asl but only in Calabria and Sicily

Aorn: Azienda ospedaliera di rilievo nazionale, basicly an hospital

IRCCS: Istituto di ricerca e cura a carattere scientifico, an hospital carrying on clinical research

Foia: Freedom of information act, the Italian law which granted Pazienti dimenticati access to Nhs data, albeit not all of them. Public administration can deny acces to data wheter the request is massive or it requires further processing. They also should always answer, even to deny access, but there are no penalties if the don’t, which happened several times during this investigation.