During their audience with the Holy Father, the Patrons articulated two primary objectives. The first is to create a dedicated network that facilitates medical care for children globally while simultaneously supporting healthcare workers in the field. The second objective involves implementing a “Hub and Spoke” model: the “Hubs” represent centers of medical excellence worldwide that deliver expertise and care, while the “Spokes” are smaller healthcare facilities situated in underserved regions where medical needs remain unmet.

The Patrons have developed an integrated model to enhance pediatric care, structured as a pyramid with three key components, arranged from the base to the apex: capacity building, telemedicine, and referral.

• Capacity Building: This involves strengthening and supporting specialized pediatric services at partner hospitals in low- and middle-income countries, thereby expanding access to care for children in need.
• Telemedicine: to provide support to local clinicians at partner hospitals by facilitating telemedicine consultations for complex pediatric cases with international centers of excellence.
• Internatinal referral: This component entails referring highly complex cases from partner hospitals to international pediatric centers of excellence when local treatment options are insufficient.

These three pillars are interconnected and synergistic.

• Advanced pediatric care relies on local clinicians being mentored and supervised by experienced specialists (capacity building), who engage in discussions and collaborations on real clinical cases (e.g telemedicine).
• On the other hand, for telemedicine to be effective, partner hospitals must possess adequate diagnostic capabilities (e.g., ultrasound, biopsy), monitoring equipment (e.g., oxygen therapy, blood transfusion), and treatment options (e.g., chemotherapy, surgery) for expert advice to be effectively utilized.
• Finally, effective referral depends on partner hospitals being able to identify appropriate cases for referral and providing ongoing aftercare (capacity), as well as facilitating virtual engagement between local and international clinicians (telemedicine).

During this “Pilot Phase” the Patrons have proposed some Criteria to their Pilot Partner Hospitals, always minding the aim, which is to achieve the greatest impact to save and improve the lives of the greatest number of “forgotten children” possible.

The Patrons therefore proposed the following points for selecting the first Pilot partner hospitals:

1. Already provides a good standard of core pediatric services
2. Has ambition and capacity to establish and sustain specialist pediatric services
3. Has strong and motivated leadership to drive this partnership and make a change
4. Has wider political support and buy-in to participate in the Pope’s Global Alliance
5. Has future potential to act as a training and referral site for country and region
6. Participating staff have sufficient English language to not require interpreters

In the initial phase of the plan, the aim was to establish a Pilot Project that leverages the experiences of all partners. The Patrons seek to do more than merely provide financial support for ongoing initiatives; they are committed to developing their own initiative in collaboration with organizations that share their mission and values. This approach involves tapping into the expertise and knowledge that other institutions within this network have already established.