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Projects and programmes

Fully in line with our institutional mission, we work every day in Italy and around the world, applying the Smile House Model nationally and running international cooperation programmes.

The national project

The Smile House Model was created in 2000 with the idea of building a network of Centres of Excellence dedicated to the care of children and young adults born with craniomaxillofacial malformations.

Thanks to an initial agreement signed in 2008 with the Ministry of Health, we created a network that today comprises eight facilities located throughout the country. At each centre we apply a unique and controlled multidisciplinary treatment, which allows families to receive specialist care without having to face the burden of healthcare migration.

The Smile House Project is structured according to the Hub & Spoke model:

  • the Hubs are highly specialised centres that manage the most complex cases and guarantee the clinical standards of the entire network;
  • the Spokes are local facilities that receive patients, follow them along their care pathway and refer them to the relevant Hub only when necessary.

The result is a system in which specialisation and closeness to the patient coexist, ensuring consistent and shared protocols throughout Italy.

Find out more about our centres in Italy

The international programmes

The versatility of our model has attracted interest in numerous countries. For this reason, Smile House Fondazione ETS has developed a system of international partnerships with hospitals, universities, foundations and NGOs to share medical-scientific know-how, innovative care protocols and specialised human resources.

Among our partner organisations:

  • the World Craniofacial Foundation (since 2020);
  • Clapp Pakistan (since 2023);
  • the GSR Institute of Craniofacial Surgery – Hyderabad, India (since 2023);
  • FUCS – Bogotá, Colombia (since 2024);
  • the Intercleft Foundation – Hungary (since 2024).

We also have an ongoing collaboration with the Maxtrain Platform (European Association for Cranio Maxillo Facial Surgery) for international training programmes and the exchange of skills in surgical and care settings.

Three operating models, a single goal: to heal

Our international programmes are organised into three operational macro-areas, each with a specific and interconnected focus: