Curriculum: “Legal Medicine and Occupational Medicine”

PhD Programme in “Health Sciences”
Curriculum: “Legal Medicine and Occupational Medicine”


The research areas of the PhD programme related to Legal Medicine cover four main sectors:(i) necroscopic medicine,
(ii) management of medico‑legal litigation related to healthcare liability,(iii) clinical legal medicine, and (iv) forensic medicine.

These research sectors are closely connected to the usual professional activities carried out by legal medicine specialists, including court‑appointed expert evaluations for Judicial Offices, institutional activities related to litigation management, determination of the causes of death through autopsy, and clinical legal medicine consultancy within hospital settings.
The main research topics in Legal Medicine within the PhD programme are summarised below:

  • Management of medico‑legal disputes in the healthcare sector, with particular focus on medical malpractice and on the assessment and prevention of nosocomial infections;
  • Diagnosis of death, prevention, and applied research on cadavers undergoing diagnostic examination and judicial autopsy, with particular emphasis on sudden cardiac deaths and suicides;
  • Study and assessment of victims of sexual violence using validated multidisciplinary protocols;
  • Study and assessment of victims of domestic abuse, with specific attention to elder abuse, violence against women, and child abuse;
  • Individual identification in living persons, cadavers, and biological traces through DNA analysis;
  • Clinical Legal Medicine, with particular focus on the assessment of incapacitated patients;
  • Evidence‑Based Medicine applied to Forensic Medicine.

Legal Medicine faculty members of the PhD programme participate in the Working Groups of the main national scientific societies in the MED/43 disciplinary sector (Legal Medicine), such as the Italian Society of Legal and Insurance Medicine. They also hold national leadership roles in GIPF (Italian Group of Forensic Pathology) and GEFI (Italian Forensic Geneticists).

Occupational Medicine
The research areas of the PhD programme related to Occupational Medicine cover four main sectors:(i) preventive medicine,(ii) clinical and environmental epidemiology,(iii) infodemiology and e‑Health,(iv) industrial hygiene and occupational toxicology.

These fields are closely aligned with the typical responsibilities of occupational physicians/competent medical officers, particularly in the context of health surveillance and workplace risk assessment.
The main ongoing research lines in Occupational Medicine within the PhD programme include:

  • Occupational hygiene;
  • Assessment and prevention of occupational biological risk, with particular emphasis on the healthcare sector;
  • Assessment and prevention of chemical and carcinogenic risks in the workplace, especially in healthcare settings;
  • Immunoprophylaxis in occupational contexts;
  • Evidence‑Based Medicine applied to Occupational Medicine;
  • Study and validation of new digital tools for epidemiological surveillance of workplace injuries and occupational diseases;
  • Occupational allergology and specific immunotherapy;
  • Health promotion in the workplace;
  • Study and prevention of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) in occupational settings.

Faculty members in Occupational Medicine participate in the Working Groups of the main national scientific societies for the MED/44 disciplinary sector (Occupational Medicine), including SIML (Italian Society of Occupational Medicine) and SItI (Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health). They hold national coordination roles for the SIML “Tuberculosis” group and the SItI “Occupational Hygiene – Occupational Health and Safety” group.

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