Yafa Yarkoni, Israeli singer, died he was 86.

Yafa Yarkoni  was an Israeli singer, winner of the Israel Prize in 1998 for Hebrew song  died he was 86.. She was dubbed Israel's “songstress of the wars” due to her frequent performances for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, especially in wartime.^[1] She was from a Kavkazi Jewish family.^[2]

^{(Hebrew: יפה ירקוני‎, also Yaffa Yarqoni, (24 December 1925 – 1 January 2012)}

Biography

Yafa Abramov (later Yafa Gustin and Yafa Yarkoni) was born in Giv'at Rambam (today a neighbourhood of Giv'atayim) to a Jewish family that immigrated from the Caucasus. At the age of ten, she studied ballet dancing under Gertrude Kraus, one of Israel's dance pioneers.
In the 1940s, her mother ran a café in Givat Rambam, where Yafa performed with her sister Tikva and her brother Binyamin. On 21 September 1944, she married Joseph Gustin, who fought in World War II with the Jewish Brigade and was killed in battle in Italy in 1945.^[3]
Yarkoni married Shaike Yarkoni in 1948.^[4] They had three daughters.^[5]
In 2000, Yarkoni was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.^[6][7] According to her daughter, Haaretz journalist Orit Shochat, her condition worsened in 2007. That year she appeared for the last time on a television show produced in her honor by the Israel Broadcasting Authority.

Music career

In 1948, during Israel's War of Independence, Yarkoni joined an IDF song troupe affiliated with the Givati Brigade. Bab el-Wad, a song she performed at the time, became a classic, sung every year on Israel's Memorial Day. After the war, she performed songs for a program on the Kol Yisrael radio station.^[8]
Most of Yarkoni's songs were written by Tuli Reviv and Haim Hefer.^[9] Yarkoni also performed some of Naomi Shemer's early children's songs.
Among her most well-known songs are "Don't Say Goodbye, Say I Will See You," about a soldier parting from his girlfriend before battle, and "Road to Jerusalem," about soldiers transporting food to Jerusalem when the city was under siege in 1948.^[5]

Awards

In 1998, Yarkoni was awarded the Israel Prize, for Hebrew song.^[10] In 2005, she was voted the 153rd-greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.^[11]

Death

On 1 January 2012, Yarkoni died at Reut Medical Center in Tel Aviv. She is buried in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv, beside her husband.^[12]


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Carlos Soria, Argentine politician, Secretary of Intelligence (2002), Governor of Río Negro (since 2011), died from gunshot he was 63.

Carlos Ernesto Soria was an Argentine lawyer and Justicialist Party politician died from gunshot he was 63.. He died in the early hours of January 1, 2012, from a gunshot wound, at his farm, after the New Year celebrations. Soria was the governor of Rio Negro Province at the time. His widow was charged with first-degree murder on January 19, 2012.

(March 1, 1949 – January 1, 2012)

Life and times

Early life and career

Soria was born in Bahía Blanca in 1949, and was raised in a nearby rural town, General Daniel Cerri. His father, Ernesto Soria, was an outspoken Peronist, and was arrested shortly after the 1955 coup against President Juan Perón. Following his release several months later, the Sorias relocated to Bariloche. The elder Soria was again arrested amid a crackdown on Peronist protests during a state visit to Bariloche by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower in March 1959, and was imprisoned in Bahía Blanca. He was released in April 1962 and the family settled in General Roca, Río Negro, where they opened a neighborhood store.^[2]
Carlos Soria enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires, earning a Law degree in 1973. Elections that March returned Peronists to power, and Soria was elected to the local Justicialist Party (JP) chapter. He was later elected to the Provincial Council of the JP, and upon the return of democracy in 1983, won a seat in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies.^[2]

Tenure in Congress

Soria would be elected to Congress for four consecutive terms, becoming Chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee. He also served in the Justice, Impeachments, and Money Laundering committees; chaired the joint committee investigating the 1992 Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires and the 1994 AMIA bombing (the two most significant acts of Islamic terrorism in Argentine history);^[3] and served in the Council of Magistrates of the Nation.^[4]
Soria shared President Carlos Menem's opposition to trials opened in 1996 in Spanish courts against Dirty War perpetrators by Judge Baltasar Garzón, and personally led a delegation to protest these trials; when Judge Garzón turned the tables on the delegation by calling them to testify, they returned, however, creating an embarrassing diplomatic incident.^[5] He later presented a bill to restrict rights and toughen sentences for those accused of violent crime, as well as another which would have granted congressional immunity to all members in perpetuity; both bills were defeated.^[5]
Soria would later be indicted for obstruction of justice in his capacity as Chair of the Joint Committee on the AMIA bombing, and though he was cleared of all charges, the Río Negro PJ dropped him from their party list ahead of the 1999 elections.^[5] Soria was then offered a place in the Buenos Aires Province PJ list for Congress by Governor Eduardo Duhalde. Shortly before the October 1999 elections, moreover, Duhalde appointed Soria as Provincial Minister of Justice. His appointment took place on the heels of the September 16 Ramallo massacre, a botched Provincial Police intervention during an armed bank robbery that resulted in the deaths of two hostages.^[6] Soria promptly released hitherto sequestered police files relating to the case which confirmed that the robbery, as well as the deaths of all robbers and hostages alike, had been orchestrated by Provincial Police officers.^[7]
Remaining on the electoral list for National Deputies, Soria took his seat in Congress in December representing the Province of Buenos Aires. He became among the leading congressional opponents of President Fernando de la Rúa's austerity package, scuttling a 2000 decree which would have cut public sector salaries (this ultimately took place the following year).^[8] President de la Rúa's resignation in December 2001, and the subsequent Congressional designation of Duhalde as provisional president resulted in Soria's appointment as Secretary of State Intelligence (SIDE) in January 2002.^[3]

Tenure at State Intelligence

Taking office, as President Duhalde did, amid widespread protest, Soria's tenure at SIDE would eventually be marred by a June 26 incident in which two piqueteros, Maximiliano Kosteki and Darío Santillán, were shot in the back in Avellaneda by Provincial Police officers. SIDE had produced intelligence reports stating that the overthrow of the national government had been openly advocated in piqueteros' assemblies, and that these were attended by the extremist group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).^[5] Phone conversations between minutes before the assassinations between a policeman implicated in the incident and the Undersecretary of Intelligence at the time, Oscar Rodríguez, proved SIDE involvement in the tragedy in subsequent trials.^[9]
Fallout from this incident was compounded by allegations made by Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that SIDE personnel were spying on her husband, Santa Cruz Governor Néstor Kirchner, who had recently declared his intention to run for President the following year.^[5] These controversies, and Soria's own plans to run for Governor of the Province of Río Negro, prompted his resignation from SIDE in July. He was narrowly defeated in provincial elections in August 2003 by UCR candidate Miguel Saiz,^[10] though in elections held later in 2003, Soria narrowly won the election for mayor of the city of General Roca (the largest in the province).^[2] Duhalde and Soria continued to face charges in court related to the 2002 deaths. Soria declared at trial in 2005 that "democracy works with order, and we needed to establish order";^[11] both men were cleared of all charges.^[5]

Return to Río Negro

Soria was overwhelmingly reelected as mayor of General Roca in 2007, garnering 73% of the vote.^[2] He clinched the Justicialist Party nomination for Governor of Río Negro in 2011, and ran with the support of the Front for Victory (FpV) faction of the party despite his long-standing alliance with the FpV's main rival, Duhalde. Soria's principal opponent in the race, UCR nominee César Barbeito, also professed his support of the FpV's standard-bearer, President Cristina Kirchner. The president formally endorsed Soria despite their past differences, however, while maintaining her distance from both candidates.^[5] Soria was elected governor in September with 51% of the vote, besting Barbeito by nearly 14%.^[12]

Death

Soria died on January 1, 2012, during the new year celebrations with his family at his farm near General Roca. He was shot in the face with a .38 caliber weapon at around 5 am, and was moved immediately to a nearby hospital, where he died minutes later.^[13] The police didn't determine initially whether the death was caused by an accident or foul play; his wife was held for further questioning.^[13][14] He received a private funeral.^[13] His widow was charged with first-degree murder on January 19, 2012.^[15]
Vice-governor Alberto Weretilneck succeeded Soria as governor. Weretilneck considered calling new elections, despite provisions in the Constitution of Río Negro Province that would allow him to complete the remainder of Soria's term.^[13]


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Marcelle Narbonne, French supercentenarian, oldest person in Europe, died she was 113.

Marcelle Narbonne was, at the time of her death, the oldest living person in France and Europe oldest person in Europe, died she was 113.. She was also the 8th-oldest validated living person in the world.^[1][2]

^{(25 March 1898 – 1 January 2012)}

Biography

Narbonne was born in Isserville in French Algeria. She worked as a shorthand typist for much of her life. In 1962 she moved to mainland France when Algeria gained its independence from the French. Shortly after in 1963, Narbonne retired. Narbonne lived with her younger sister until her death at the age of 95 in 1999. From there, Narbonne moved to Capucines a retirement home in Argelès-Sur-Mer. On her 112th birthday in 2010, Narbonne was reported to be physically weak and walked short distances. She enjoyed poetry, a glass of champagne, and ate on her own. She was on no medications and spoke very little by the time of her death.

Longevity records

• On 14 July 2010, Marcelle Narbonne aged 112 years 111 days moved into Gerontology Research Group list for Guinness World Records.
• On 23 July 2011, Mathilde Aussant died, Marcelle Narbonne aged 113 years 120 days became the oldest person in France and one of the ten oldest people in the world.
• On 2 August 2011, Venere Pizzinato died, Marcelle Narbonne aged 113 years 130 days became the oldest living person in Europe.
• On 1 October 2011, Marcelle Narbonne aged 113 years 190 days became one of the 10 oldest French people ever.
• On 1 January 2012, Marcelle Narbonne aged 113 years 282 days died as the 8th oldest person in the world as well as 8th oldest French person ever.

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Tommy Mont, American college football coach and NFL player, died from heart failure he was 89.

Thomas Allison "Tommy" Mont was an American educator, university administrator, college football coach, and NFL player died from heart failure he was 89.. He played quarterback for the Washington Redskins as a back-up behind Sammy Baugh for three seasons. Mont served as the head football coach for three years at the University of Maryland and for eighteen years at DePauw University. He also served as the DePauw athletic director for fifteen years.

(June 20, 1922 – January 1, 2012) 

Early life

Mont was born in Mount Savage, Maryland in 1922. He attended Allegany High School in Cumberland, Maryland where he played football as a quarterback. In 1939, he led the team to the city championship.^[1]

College career

Mont meets William W. Skinner, Maryland's first quarterback and coach of the 1892 team.

Mont attended the University of Maryland where he played football as a quarterback in 1941 and 1942.^[2] In 1942, Clark Shaughnessy took over as Maryland head coach. In 1940 and 1941, Shaughnessy had coached at Stanford. There he installed a pass-oriented version of the T-formation and, in his first year, engineered a turnaround from a 1–7–1 record to a perfect 10–0 season and Pacific Coast Conference championship.^[3] While Maryland's head coach, Shaughnessy also worked concurrently as an advisor for the Washington Redskins, with that club and Maryland sharing the cost of his salary.^[4] Shaughnessy helped develop Mont into a high-quality quarterback.^[5] In 1942, with Mont under center, the Terrapins posted a 7–2 record.^[2] That year, Mont was named an honorable mention All-American and ranked as the number-three passer in the nation.^[1][6] Mont also played lacrosse for Maryland for the 1942 season.^[7]

Military service

Mont put his college career on hold in order to join the United States Army as an infantryman and served in the Second World War. In 1945, he coached the 3rd Infantry Division football team which won the 7th Army championship. After returning to the United States, he coached the basketball and football teams at Fort Benning, Georgia.^[8]

Return to college

After his military service, Mont returned to Maryland and played football for another season in 1946.^[2] That season, Shaughnessy, one-time Maryland head coach in 1942, also returned from Pittsburgh. Shaughnessy again worked part-time as an advisor for the Washington Redskins, and he had some of the Maryland players assist him. Under the arrangement, Mont and Vic Turyn reportedly even called some plays for the Redskins.^[4] Mont graduated from Maryland with a bachelor of science degree in 1947.^[8] He played a second season on the lacrosse team in 1948.^[7]

Professional playing career

Mont had been selected in the 12th round of the 1944 NFL Draft (114th overall) by the New York Giants.^[9][10] In 1947, he went to play for the Washington Redskins.^[10] He played as a back-up quarterback for three seasons, and at one point was the number-two behind the legendary Sammy Baugh.^[8] In his first season, he saw action in four games, and recorded one interception on defense with a seven-yard return.^[10]
In 1948, he played in 11 games including two starts. He recorded 12 completions on 28 attempts for 157 yards and two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also had 11 carries for 103 yards and one touchdown. On defense, he had two interceptions for 21 yards. That season, he was the Redskins' second leading passer behind Baugh.^[10]
In 1949, he played in 12 games and made three of seven completions for 44 yards. He also recorded rushed 14 times for 75 yards and made eight receptions for 105 yards and two touchdowns. On defense, he recovered one fumble for a 45-yard return. That season, he was the Redskins' third leading passer behind Baugh and Harry Gilmer.^[10]

Coaching career

Early positions

In 1949, Mont assisted at the University of Chattanooga, where he helped install a T-formation offense. In 1950, he served as an assistant coach with the Washington Redskins.^[1]
Mont returned to his alma mater in 1951 to become the Maryland backfield coach under Jim Tatum, and he held that position through the 1955 season. During that time, he also worked with the U.S. Marine Corps' Parris Island football team, where he helped implement a split-T offense in 1954. Mont worked summers with the football team of the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City from 1953 to 1955. In 1955, he also worked for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League. In December 1958, he was a coach for the Blue team in the Blue–Gray Football Classic.^[8]

Maryland

After Tatum resigned to coach at his own alma mater, North Carolina, Mont was appointed as his replacement in 1956.^[11] In his first season, Maryland was riddled with injuries and posted a disappointing 2–7–1 record.^[2][12] Mont had great difficulty recruiting to the same standard that his predecessor had,^[13] but managed to secure Rod Breedlove, a highly-touted guard prospect.^[12] Breedlove later went on to play eight years in the NFL and made a Pro Bowl appearance.
In 1957, the Terrapins improved to a 5–5 record. The highlight of the season was a game featuring Jim Tatum's return to College Park, Maryland. On October 19, at Byrd Stadium, Maryland met the North Carolina team led by their former head coach. The game also had in attendance Queen Elizabeth II who had expressed a wish to see her first game of American football. The Tar Heels were ranked 6th in the nation and possessed a 3–1 record. The Terrapins, on the other hand, were 1–3.^[14] In the first quarter, Maryland halfback Howard Dare fumbled and North Carolina linebacker Jack Lineberger recovered the ball on the Terrapins' 44-yard line. North Carolina was subsequently forced to punt, but recovered it at the Maryland 35. On the ensuing possession, Tar Heel halfback Daley Goff rushed 11 yards for a touchdown. In the third quarter, Maryland gained excellent field position when Goff received a bad punt snap and the Terps took over on the Carolina 38-yard line. Maryland quarterback Bob Rusevlyan later scored on a one-yard sneak. In the fourth quarter, halfback Ted Kershner broke away for an 81-yard touchdown run. Fullback Jim Joyce capped a 67-yard drive with a 13-yard rush for a score. With a final result of 21–7, the Maryland players carried Mont to the Queen and Prince Philip's box.^[15] Mont said it was a day that "I will revel in for the rest of my life."^[14]
In 1958, however, Maryland again backslided with a 4–6 record and Mont subsequently resigned.

DePauw

In 1959, Mont accepted a job as head coach and a professor of physical education at DePauw University.^[8] While there, he compiled a 67–94–4 record.^[16] In the rivalry with Wabash College, the Monon Bell Classic, Mont's teams posted a 12–5–1 record. He was twice bestowed most outstanding conference coach honors, including in 1967, when he was named the Indiana Collegiate Conference Coach of the Year.^[1][17]
In 1964, Mont earned a Master of Science degree from Indiana University.^[18] In 1973, he was inducted into the Maryland Sports Hall of Fame at the Hit and Run Club at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.^[1]

After football

In 1972, he was appointed as the DePauw athletic director and the chairman of the department of physical education.^[1] In 1977, Mont retired as head coach to devote his full energy to his duties as athletic director.^[17] In 1987, he retired as athletic director.^[19] He and his wife were living in Phoenix, Arizona during his later years.^[19] Mont died of heart failure on January 1, 2012.^[20]

Head coaching record

Year	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Bowl/playoffs	Coaches#	AP°
Maryland Terrapins (Atlantic Coast Conference) (1956–1958)
1956	Maryland	2–7–1	0–3–1	4th
1957	Maryland	5–5–0	4–3–0	3rd
1958	Maryland	4–6–0	3–3–0	5th
Maryland:		11–18–1	9–8–1
DePauw Tigers (Indiana Collegiate Conference) (1959–1976)
1959	DePauw	1–7–1
1960	DePauw	3–5–1
1961	DePauw	5–4–0
1962	DePauw	5–4–0
1963	DePauw	5–4–0
1964	DePauw	2–7–0
1965	DePauw	2–6–1
1966	DePauw	3–6–0
1967	DePauw	6–2–1
1968	DePauw	6–3–0
1969	DePauw	2–7–0
1970	DePauw	4–5–0
1971	DePauw	1–8–0
1972	DePauw	2–7–0
1973	DePauw	6–3–0
1974	DePauw	7–3–0
1975	DePauw	5–5–0
1976	DePauw	2–8–0
DePauw:		67–94–4
Total:		78–112–5
†Indicates BCS bowl, Bowl Alliance or Bowl Coalition game. #Rankings from final Coaches' Poll.

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Fred Milano, American doo-wop singer (The Belmonts, Dion and the Belmonts), died from lung cancer he was 72.

Fred Milano  was an American doo-wop singer died from lung cancer he was 72.. Born in New York, he was a member (second tenor) of The Belmonts who became successful in the late 1950s as Dion and the Belmonts,^[1] and in the early 1960s.^[2][3][4] The Belmonts got their name from the street that Milano lived on, Belmont Avenue.

(August 26, 1939 – January 1, 2012)

Milano died on January 1, 2012, from lung cancer in New York, at the age of 72.^[2] He had participated in every one of the Belmonts' recording sessions dating back 54 years.^[2] Dion DiMucci said of his passing; "I was shocked, obviously, because it was so sudden. It was already in stage four when he found out there was anything wrong with him. It hit hard because a relationship like we had, it’s ingrained in you. We knew each other from our teenage boyhoods; even though we weren’t close and didn’t talk in later years, what we went through together made us like family. He and the Belmonts—they were the very best. Freddie was almost like a genius with vocal harmony. I was humbled to sing with Freddie, Carlo and Angelo."^[5]
In 2000, Dion and the Belmonts were inducted in the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.

Discography

Singles

   * Mohawk Records :

• "Santa Margherita" / "Teen-Age Clementine" (1957) - The Belmonts
• "Tag Along" / "We Went Away" (1958) - Dion and the Belmonts

   * Laurie Records :

• "I Wonder Why" / "Teen Angel" (1958) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "No One Knows" / "I Cant Go On (Rosalie)" (1958) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "Don't Pity Me" / "Just You" (1958) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "A Teenager in Love" / "Ive Cried Before" (1959) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "A Lover's Prayer" / "Every Little Thing I Do" (1959) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "Where or When" / "That's My Desire" (1960) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "When You Wish upon a Star" / "Wonderful Girl" (1960) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "In the Still of the Night" / "A Funny Feeling" (1960) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "We Belong Together" / "Such A Long Way" (1961) - The Belmonts
• "Story Teller" / "A Brand New Song" (1975) - The Belmonts

   * Sabrina/Sabina Records :

• "Tell Me Why" / "Smoke From Your Cigarette" (1961) - The Belmonts
• "Don't Get Around Much Anymore" / Searching For A New Love" (1961) - The Belmonts
• "I Need Someone" / "That American Dance" (1961) - The Belmonts
• "I Confess" / "Hombre" (1962) - The Belmonts
• "Come On Little Angel" / "How About Me" (1962) - The Belmonts
• "Diddle-Dee-Dum" / "Farewell" (1962) - The Belmonts
• "Ann-Marie" / "Ac-Cent-Tuate-The-Positive" (1962) - The Belmonts
• "Let's Call It A Day" / "Walk On Boy" (1963) - The Belmonts
• "More Important Things To Do" / "Walk On Boy" (1963) - The Belmonts
• "C'mon Everybody" / "Why" (1963) - The Belmonts
• "Nothing In Return" / "Summertime" (1964) - The Belmonts

   * United Artists Records :

• "I Don't Know Why, I Just Do" / "Wintertime" (1965) - The Belmonts
• "Today My Love Has Gone Away" / "(Then) I Walked Away" (1965) - The Belmonts
• "To Be With You" / "I Got A Feeling" (1965) - The Belmonts
• "You're Like A Mystery" / "Come With Me" (1966) - The Belmonts

   * ABC Records :

• "My Girl The Month of May" / "Berimbau" (1966) - Dion and the Belmonts
• "Movin' Man" / "For Bobbie" (1967) - Dion and the Belmonts

   * Dot Records :

• "She Only Wants To Do Her Own Thing" / "Reminiscing" (1968) - The Belmonts
• "Have You Heard-The Worst That Could Happen" / "Answer Me My Love" (1969) - The Belmonts

   * Strawberry Records :

• "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" / "Voyager" (1976) - The Belmonts

   * Miasound Records :

• "Let’s Put The Fun Back In Rock n Roll" / "Your Mama Ain’t Always Right" (1981) - The Belmonts with Freddy Cannon

Albums

• Presenting Dion and the Belmonts (1959)
• Wish Upon A Star with Dion and the Belmonts (1960)
• Together Again (1967) - Dion and the Belmonts
• Summer Love (1969) - The Belmonts
• Cigars, Acappella, Candy (1972) - The Belmonts
• Reunion (1973) - Dion and the Belmonts

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Bill Mardo, American sportswriter, died from Parkinson's disease he was 88.

Bill Mardo was a writer for the The Daily Worker, the Communist Party of America newspaper. He is known for helping fight Major League Baseball's color barrier died from Parkinson's disease he was 88..^[1] He was the last living sportswriter deeply involved in the battle against segregation.^[2]

^{(October 24, 1923 - January 20, 2012)}

Early life

He was born William Bloom in Manhattan, New York on October 24, 1923, but changed his name when he began his career in journalism.

Journalism career

Mardo joined The Daily Worker in 1942 and remained with them through the early 1950s, when he joined the Soviet news agency Tass.
He died from Parkinson's disease on January 20, 2012 in Manhattan.


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Alessandro Liberati, Italian medical researcher, died from cancer he was 57.

Alessandro Liberati  was an Italian healthcare researcher and clinical epidemiologist, and founder of the Italian Cochrane Centre died from cancer he was 57..

(Genoa, Italy, 27 April 1954 – Bologna, Italy, 1 January 2012)

Biography

Alessandro Liberati graduated from the University of Milan in 1978 with a degree in Medicine, and obtained a postgraduate degree in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine from the same university in 1982. Before his graduation, he started collaborating with the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, where he led the laboratory of clinical epidemiology for a dozen years. He spent postgraduate research periods at the Harvard School of Public Health and at the RAND Corporation. He was an advocate of the evidence-based medicine movement and one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international network of researchers established in 1993,^[1] producing a collection of systematic reviews of the medical literature, published in the Cochrane Library. In 1994 he started the Italian Cochrane Centre^[2] as the sixth Centre in the Cochrane Collaboration, which currently lists 31 centres and branches, and was its director for eighteen years.^[3]
In 1998 Liberati moved to academia, becoming associate professor of Medical Statistics at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The following year he also became director of CeVEAS, a regional evidence-based centre located in Modena aimed at supporting clinicians' and health-care policymakers' decisions. In 2002 he started a Research and Innovation Program at the Emilia-Romagna Regional Health Care Agency, aimed at promoting patient-oriented clinical research bringing together clinicians, researchers, health care institutions, patients and the industry. Later in the same year Liberati was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. In 2003 he underwent two bone marrow transplants. He continued his work in patient-oriented research, as vice-president of Italy's National Committee for Health Research, and as a member of the Research and Development Committee of the Italian Drug Agency.
In late 2011 his clinical condition worsened until his death on 1 January 2012. In a press release, the Italian Minister of Health Renato Balduzzi described Liberati as one of the most insightful Italian researchers and a prominent member of the international scientific community.^[4]

Career and international reputation

Several obituaries describe Liberati's professional experience, highlighting the main features of his work and the ideas he supported.^{[2][5][6][7][8][9][10]} He believed that within a health system, research should be an integral part of its mission, especially where lack of commercial interests prevents the possibility of private investment,^[6] and that researchers should concentrate on what is relevant to patients, not to their careers or to drug companies.^[5][11][12] Moreover, he strongly believed that developing alliances with consumers is necessary for setting research priorities, ^{[1] [13]} and that research results should be easily accessible to people who need to make decisions about their own health.^[2][5]
In keeping with Iain Chalmers, one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration, Liberati was one of the pioneers of evidence synthesis,^[1] specifically, analyzing controlled trials of treatments for early breast cancer^[14] and assessing the effects of antibiotic prophylaxis in patients in intensive care.^[15] Chalmers mentions that he was pleased that Liberati and his colleagues' centre created "the first challenge to 'anglophone imperialism' within the evolving Collaboration".^[1]
Liberati was on the editorial board of two international medical journals, the British Medical Journal and Annals of Internal Medicine. He was a member of groups of international researchers developing standards to improve the quality of reporting of medical evidence (such as PRISMA)^[16] and to grade recommendations within clinical guidelines for medical decision-making (such as GRADE).^[17] He was an author of 187 scientific publications in international peer-reviewed medical journals.^[18]
During 2003 and 2008, Liberati leaded with Zadig, a scientific publisher, specialized in EBM communication, a program to disseminate independent and unbiased information to all Italian doctors.^[19] He did so by translating Clinical Evidence, a compendium of the best available evidence on treating a wide range of common conditions, into Italian and distributing it freely, supported by the Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA). By 2008, six Italian editions were published, freely available to all 248,000 doctors in practice in Italy at that time. Again in collaboration with Zadig, to speed up the diffusion of EBM, Liberati launched a free-access continuous medical education e-learning system, based on Clinical Evidence, called ECCE (the Italian acronym for Continuing Education Clinical Evidence).^[20] At the end of 2008 almost 130,000 health professionals were using ECCE, considered contents relevant and appropriate for educational purposes and expressed their intention to apply the acquired information into clinical practice. This is considered a successful example of knowledge translation, making research findings more accessible and clinically relevant to increase their usefulness for practitioners and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.
Liberati often used his own experience as a patient as evidence of the need for collaborative strategies in healthcare research, such as in an interview published by the World Health Organization^[21] and in medical journal articles.^[11][12] In his last months, Liberati kept a blog where he discussed and exchanged comments about his disease, health care and other themes.^[22]


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