This volume explores the Italian situation of English for Specific Purposes as employed in a highly specialized and exclusive scientific-professional domain: medicine. The papers collected here deal with both the research and the didactics of English for Medical Purposes (EMP), seen as integrated aspects of the same linguistic phenomenon. The first part outlines the current status of EMP research and didactics in Italy, with reflections on the development and usage of EMP (Kim Grego, Paola Baseotto, Roberta Mullini, Elisabetta Lonati, Marianna L. Zummo and Tatiana Canziani). The second part offers insights into the present and short-term future of Englishteaching in medicine and health-related degree courses, with contributions by Philippa Mungra, Barbara Cappuzzo, Anthony Baldry, Deirdre Kantz, Fabrizio Maggi, Alessandra Vicentini and Alessandra Radicchi, Jaana H. Simpanen and Antonella A. Uttila. The wide range of approaches considered all underline the importance of promoting research on the different facets of medical discourse and its pedagogical implications, while stressing the importance of cooperation between linguists and medical experts to improve medical students’ learning opportunities in relation to their future role as communicators (as clinicians and researchers) in a multicultural and global society.