Strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs by developing strategic skills, providing access to qualified services and building cross-border collaborations along the blue-economy value chain: these are the goals of LEAP TO BLUE – Unleash the potential for joint transition in the blue economy, a project under the Interreg Italy–Croatia 2021–2027 Programme presented today at the University of Trieste, which is a partner in the initiative through its Department of Economic, Business, Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (DEAMS).

The University of Trieste takes part in the project within a partnership led by the University of Zadar (Lead partner) and also involving Unioncamere del Veneto, ARTI Puglia – Regional Agency for Technology, Technology Transfer and Innovation, the University of Zagreb – FER and the Croatian Chamber of Economy.

LEAP TO BLUE is an OSI – Operation of Strategic Importance, i.e., a strategically relevant cross-border cooperation action selected within the Interreg Italy–Croatia 2021–2027 Programme to address shared needs of Adriatic territories with joint, high-impact solutions. Running for 36 months until June 2028 and with a total budget of about €6.1 million, the project supports the digital and green twin transition of blue-economy companies through an integrated model combining capacity building – training and strengthening skills and organisational capabilities – and matchmaking and networking, i.e., connecting demand and supply and building collaboration networks between companies and innovation ecosystem actors.

“The University of Trieste,” explains Rubina Romanello, Associate Professor of Business Economics and Management and scientific lead for the University, “focuses in particular on upskilling – strengthening existing skills – and reskilling – developing new skills – to support human capital development and foster innovation, sustainability and growth.”

“As lead partner, the University of Zadar will be the scientific heart of the project,” says Andrea Vitlov from the University of Zadar, Communication Manager of LEAP TO BLUE. “Our goal is to turn research results into practical solutions that help the blue economy grow while keeping our environment healthy. We hope the project will become a blueprint for the future, showing that economic success and environmental sustainability can go hand in hand.”

As an OSI, LEAP TO BLUE is among the Programme’s more structured and financially significant projects, delivered by highly qualified partnerships and oriented towards tangible results, such as piloting new services and solutions and developing joint pathways in strategic sectors for the Adriatic area.

The six project partners will define a service catalogue for companies. Access will be regulated through a voucher scheme with two calls scheduled for autumn 2026 and summer 2027. The services offered to SMEs will focus on internationalisation, advanced training (on digital topics and ESG) and skills upgrading (upskilling) as well as innovation and technology transfer, with the aim of supporting companies through ongoing transitions and strengthening their competitiveness.

“LEAP TO BLUE supports blue-economy SMEs by providing, through a combination of vouchers and dedicated initiatives, fast access to specialised expertise, skills and cross-border partnerships that drive innovation and market growth,” states Jelena Grancarić Milin, Head of the Technology Transfer Department at the University of Zadar.

“The project,” Romanello continues, “has nearly €3 million available to fund 162 vouchers, with an average service value of €18,000 per company. The University of Trieste will be able to allocate more than €400,000 to support training and skills development pathways with a digital and environmental focus.”

Following the official presentation to the media, the University of Trieste will host in the afternoon the regional workshop “LEAP TO BLUE: Opportunities and Services for SMEs in the Blue Economy” to explore the project’s tools, services and opportunities and contribute to shaping an offer that genuinely matches companies’ needs.

The event is aimed at the project’s target audience: small and medium-sized enterprises operating in blue-economy sectors and actors in education, research and innovation support. “The workshop,” clarifies Guido Bortoluzzi, Vice Rector for relations with businesses and the territory at the University of Trieste, “is designed to bring SMEs and local stakeholders together and collect active feedback to define a service catalogue that meets companies’ needs, both in terms of content and access procedures.”

The event also includes an in-depth session on the main challenges for SMEs, with contributions – among others – from Francesco Venier, professor at the University of Trieste and MIB and an expert in organisational innovation; Carlo Poloni, professor at the University of Trieste and President of ESTECO; Luca Braidotti, professor at the University of Trieste and CEO of Sipeom Srl; and Bostjan Lozer, strategic advisor on business models.

From 1 January 2026, the University of Trieste will have a new Director General: Marco Porzionato.

Formerly a senior manager at the University of Padua and Director General of the University of Basilicata from November 2023 until 31 December 2025, Porzionato will take over as Director General of UniTS for the three-year period 2026-2028. 

During his career, he has previously worked at the Italian Ministry of the Treasury, at the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) / State General Accounting Department and at Ca' Foscari University in Venice. He has an undergraduate degree in Political Science, a second-level master in University and Research Management and a specialisation diploma in European Community Law and Economics.

Porzionato succeeds Luciana Rozzini, who remains on the University staff as Head of the Financial Division. 

The digital sector of Friuli Venezia Giulia continues to expand and change skin. The Report FVG Digitale 2025 – The international dimension of digital enterprises in Friuli Venezia Giulia, presented by DITEDI – Digital Technologies Industrial District with the contribution of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region and in collaboration with scientific partners University of Trieste, University of Udine and Area Science Park, photographs it.

The report – now in its fifth edition – proposes the annual analysis on the state of the art and prospects of regional ICT companies, dedicating the 2025 deep dive to a strategic theme: the international dimension of the sector, between growth opportunities and structural knots still to be untied.

In 2025, the ICT companies active in Friuli Venezia Giulia are 2,281 and the total settlements reach 3,127, with a growth of +8% compared to 2024. Software and services remain the heart of the ecosystem (over 95% of the sector), while the hardware component – although on more contained absolute values – is the one that records the most marked dynamic in terms of numbers.

On the territorial level, Udine is confirmed as the main regional digital hub, followed by Pordenone, which maintains a relevant profile also thanks to the link with advanced manufacturing and automation. Trieste consolidates a strategic position, supported by its research system and specialization in fields such as data science and advanced technologies. The hub of Gorizia is more contained, with potential linked to the development of cross-border activities connected to GO!2025.

The analysis also signals a positive economic trend but not without pressures: revenues grow, but margins are more compressed, with operating costs and investments increasing. Also on the innovation front, an evolving trajectory emerges, with growth signals indicating a potential still in consolidation.

The 2025 focus highlights how internationalization represents a development trajectory still largely unexpressed for the ICT sector: only a limited share of companies shows a continuous presence on foreign markets.

During the presentation event, Guido Bortoluzzi, professor of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Trieste and Pro-Rector for relations with companies and the territory, moderated the roundtable with entrepreneurs and managers of the sector, with the participation of Alfa Sistemi, Beantech, EMC Gems, Esteco, MOLO17 and Video Systems.

Taking up the contents emerged in the discussion – dedicated to internationalization – Bortoluzzi emphasized how the IT sector presents a “two-speed” dynamic: strongly global upstream, on the front of platforms and enabling technologies (mainly American), and much more local downstream, in the market of providers and system integrators, often concentrated on the customization of solutions developed by large players. The roundtable, he observed, however confirmed that concrete models of international opening exist: from companies with very vertical products and business models – which are born already with a global projection – to “piggyback” internationalization, when the supplier follows the expansion abroad of its clients (for example by opening a branch near a new plant). Overall, he concluded, the international propensity of the sector remains moderate on the market, but more driven on the side of suppliers and platforms.

Among the guests of the roundtable also Carlo Poloni, CEO of Esteco. For the first academic spin-off of the University of Trieste “internationalization represents a necessity and a way of being”. “Our market – Poloni explained - has always been that of those who develop sophisticated industrial products regardless of where this happens. While maintaining the central core of development in Trieste, support for customers has always been global”.

The complete report is available on fvgdigitale.ditedi.it

The University of Trieste is approaching the end of the year with a result that places it among the small group of Italy’s highest-performing universities: it has been positioned in the top tier of periodic accreditation, receiving a “Fully Satisfactory” institutional judgement from the National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research System (ANVUR).

In the assessments available to date, the highest judgement has been awarded by ANVUR to only four other Italian universities out of 33 evaluated: University of Pavia, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UniMoRe), Politecnico di Torino, and Bocconi University.

“I am very proud to share this outcome: UniTS has been placed in the highest evaluation band. It is a third-party, objective assessment that considers the full scope of our activities: teaching, research, public and social engagement, healthcare-related clinical activities, resources and services. It recognises the quality of teamwork that has involved our entire university community,” said Rector Donata Vianelli.

In the Agency’s final report, the University of Trieste achieved the top rating in 86.7% of the focus points (20 out of 23), compared with a maximum of 78.3% (18 out of 23) recorded so far by other universities placed in the same band.

What periodic accreditation is

Periodic accreditation is the assessment through which ANVUR evaluates, at regular intervals, the overall quality of a university: not only outcomes, but also the processes, procedures and organisation that underpin education, research and third mission/social impact activities, together with resource management and services.

Recognised strengths

The report and the good practices highlighted during the accreditation process point to several distinctive elements. Among the most significant is internationalisation, starting with the substantial share of students from abroad (8% of total enrolments in bachelor’s and master’s degree programmes in academic year 2024/25, one of the highest figures in Italy), and extending to the educational offer that includes double degrees and joint degrees through agreements with European universities. The evaluation also highlights the active involvement of students in decision-making processes and in the quality assurance system, alongside the recognised contribution of technical and administrative staff.

In addition, the Agency notes the University’s commitment to teaching innovation, including through the Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC), and the strengthening of technological equipment in classrooms. In research, UniTS has introduced dedicated support for newly hired researchers: a €10,000 starting grant for those who do not have their own funding.

The evaluation process

The assessment consisted of document analysis and an on-site visit carried out by an Evaluation Experts Committee (CEV) appointed by ANVUR and composed of academics and students. Degree programmes and doctoral programmes were initially reviewed remotely from 5–7 May 2025; the Committee then visited the University from 20 to 23 May 2025 to extend its assessment.

The evaluation covered the University as a whole, a sample of 3 departments (Mathematics, Informatics and Geosciences; Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences; Humanities), 10 first- and second-cycle degree programmes (International Economics and Financial Markets, Physics, Geology, Foreign Languages and Literatures, Law, Medicine and Surgery, Pharmacy, Diplomacy and International Cooperation – Master’s, Computer Engineering – Master’s, Neurosciences – Master’s), and 3 doctoral programmes (Personalised Medicine and Innovative Therapies; Earth Sciences, Fluid Dynamics and Mathematics. Interactions and Methods; Historical, Philosophical and Political-Social Studies).

A path of continuous excellence

Rector Vianelli emphasised the collective nature of this outstanding result and expressed particular thanks to emeritus Rector Roberto Di Lenarda, under whose leadership the evaluation took place, to his governance team—“first and foremost Prof. Gianpiero Adami”—and to the Quality and Strategic Support Staff Unit, which supported the University throughout this phase.

“This excellence judgement,” Vianelli noted, “certifies the robustness of the processes through which UniTS plans, delivers and continuously improves its institutional activities. It strengthens the University of Trieste’s ability to be a reference point for educating students—who in Italy achieve the highest employment rates—for research that is delivering internationally outstanding results, and for social impact through an ongoing dialogue with all local stakeholders, particularly companies, businesses, bodies and institutions. Moreover, success in European calls guarantees the continuous innovation of our infrastructures.

“We are very satisfied with the ANVUR judgement,” concluded Vianelli, who has led the University since 1 August. “In Olympic terms, I would say we have won our gold medal”.

From health emergencies to sustainable everyday shopping, from support for out-of-town students to the wellbeing of pets, all the way to international learning mobility: these are the themes of the five entrepreneurial projects awarded at the Innovators Community Lab 2025 (ICL) final, held in the Sala Cappella of the former Military Hospital in via Fabio Severo.

The event concluded the first edition of ICL, which builds on the experience of the University of Trieste’s Contamination Lab.

During the final, the 20 finalist projects developed throughout this year’s programme were presented. The five €5,000 scholarships for the best entrepreneurial projects were awarded to: ResQ by Francesco Sulli, a Physics student, who aims to develop a smart first-aid case for companies, schools and public spaces; SiVale by Valentina Malijevic, a Law student, outlining a sustainable, plastic-free supermarket based on reusable and traceable containers; inU by Jovana Obradovic, a Psychology student, a digital platform supporting students in choosing a university and in out-of-town life in Friuli Venezia Giulia; Aura by Asja Feruglio, PhD in Design for Made in Italy—developed in collaboration with Siminozar Bahram, a Business Management student—proposing an advanced solution to reduce odours in dogs, combining scientific method and design; Kansje by Chiara Doga’, a Philosophy student, an app that collects and makes accessible opportunities for training and international mobility for young people.

Two training trips were also awarded to Francesco Sulli and Valentina Maljevic, as the best students of the course, enabling them to visit international innovation ecosystems. Overall, the awarded projects and profiles confirm the heterogeneous, multidisciplinary and cosmopolitan character of the ICL cohort, where the exchange of experiences and ideas involved students from different degree programmes and levels—from Physics to Law, from Psychology to Design, Business Management and Philosophy—and from diverse backgrounds.

The final also hosted the round table “Training to innovate: the driver of youth entrepreneurship”, bringing together universities, institutions and the business community on the role of education as a driver of innovation. In the discussion, moderated by journalist Paolo Pichierri, Rector Donata Vianelli stressed the importance of creating structured opportunities for dialogue among young people engaged in different academic pathways, pointing to the value of cross-fertilisation between skills and perspectives to support the transition from idea to entrepreneurial project, and highlighting the need to open up to international contexts and networks. The round table also featured Francesca Ros, President of Confindustria Giovani Alto Adriatico, and Giacomo Andolfato, President of Confindustria Giovani Udine.

Erik Vesselli, UniTS Delegate for Technology Transfer, added: “The Innovators Community Lab brings together the university’s three missions: education, research and social engagement. Technology transfer becomes tangible when research results enter territories, companies and institutions, also through the creation of new start-ups. This can only happen by working side by side, in a cross-fertilisation process involving lecturers, researchers, female and male students, and representatives of the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

The ICL training programme, now structured to award 6 ECTS credits to those who complete it, further strengthened role-modeling opportunities in this edition, offering examples, experiences and contacts to understand first-hand the dynamics of innovation, enterprise and work through direct engagement with key players from the productive system. Alongside seminars and networking, ICLabbers visited the headquarters of the Marcegaglia Group, where they met the company leadership and toured Casa Marcegaglia, the corporate museum that tells the story, values and vision of a major industrial group.

During the evening, the call for the ICL 2025/2026 edition was also presented, with applications open until 12 January 2026. Full information and the call text are available on the University portal.

Awarded projects (project profiles)

Francesco Sulli, Physics student – “ResQ”
ResQ is a smart first-aid case designed to revolutionise emergency management in workplaces, schools and public spaces. It combines certified medical supplies with integrated sensors and a digital interface that guides users step by step, even those without medical training. Through the ResQ Connect app, it monitors the kit’s status, supply expiry dates and intervention history, simplifying the work of H&S officers and safety managers. The project foresees a family of products (Lite, Standard, Pro, Extreme) for contexts ranging from home use to construction sites and extreme outdoor scenarios.

Valentina Malijevic, Law student – “SiVale”
SiVale, a sustainable supermarket
Each year, millions of tonnes of packaging waste come from shopping baskets. Recycling is improving, but it is not enough: the real issue lies in the single-use model. SiVale was created to change this system, positioning itself as a new-generation supermarket. Here, products are sold loose and via refill dispensers, with free use of reusable containers equipped with RFID technology to ensure traceability. Reverse vending machines collect used containers, put them back into circulation and reward customers at the same time. Shopping no longer generates waste, but becomes an act of innovation and environmental responsibility. SiVale shows that a circular, plastic-free and technologically advanced model can become normal, desirable and scalable.

Jovana Obradovic, Psychology student – “inU”
inU is an independent digital platform that supports students in choosing a university and living as out-of-town students in Friuli Venezia Giulia. It integrates authentic course reviews, peer-to-peer support, detailed local information and a structured partnership with the Regional Guidance Centre (COR) to provide free professional support. With a freemium model and a B2B strategy with local partners, inU aims to become the region’s go-to hub for informed, student-centred university guidance, helping reduce university dropout and enhance the territory.

Asja Feruglio, PhD in Design for Made in Italy – “Aura”
Project developed with Siminozar Bahram, Business Management student
Aura is a research project developing an advanced solution to reduce odours in dogs, ensuring effectiveness, skin safety and biocompatibility. Combining scientific method and design, it delivers a product conceived to improve everyday hygiene and animal wellbeing. Its essence is not merely a fragrance: it represents the bond between dog and human being, a design that translates that relationship into an emotional and identity-based value.

Chiara Doga’, Philosophy student – “Kansje”
Kansje—Dutch for “small opportunity”—is an app designed for young people who want to pursue training or mobility experiences abroad, even with limited time or financial resources. Many free opportunities, funded by the EU or community-based, remain little known and hard to find: Kansje is the first unified database making them accessible through an intelligent matchmaking system that identifies the most suitable experiences for each user. The app also offers personalised guidance before and after departure, an educational pathway to prepare for travel, and a dedicated forum to connect with other young people.

Knowing in advance if a melanoma will tend to spread to other organs could become easier thanks to what dermatologists see with a special lens on the skin: the dermatoscope. This is what emerges from an international study just published by Nature Communications, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, in which Prof. Iris Zalaudek (Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences) participated with a research team from the University of Trieste.

Today, the risk of melanoma metastases is assessed, especially after the cancer has been removed, by analysing certain characteristics such as thickness and the presence of ulceration under a microscope. These parameters remain fundamental, but they do not always allow to accurately identify patients who will have a recurrence or develop metastases.

This is why an international research team coordinated by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki decided to look at another source of information: dermatoscopic images, i.e. ‘enlarged photos’ of melanoma taken before surgery. The study, which involved ten specialist centres on three continents and over 500 patients, collected nearly 800 images. Thirty experienced dermatologists have examined them, describing colours, structures and other visible signs on the lesion in a standardised way.

At this point, the researchers put together all the observations and analysed them in relation to the evolution of the disease over time. It turned out that some recurring details in the images really make a difference. When melanoma has extensive ulceration, i.e. areas where the surface of the skin appears ‘broken’, and the so-called ‘blue-white veil’, the risk of metastasis is higher and the likelihood of remaining free of recurrence over time is lower.

On the contrary, in cases where the lesion shows very intense pigmentation and signs of regression – small scarring areas indicating a reaction of the immune system against the tumour – the behaviour of the disease tends to be less aggressive, with a lower probability of spreading to other organs.

Based on these signs, the international team built three tools to estimate the risk of metastasis: one that uses only dermatoscopic images, one that relies on traditional histological data, and one that combines both information. The most interesting result is that the model based only on the dermatoscope showed a predictive capacity comparable to that of histological parameters. The combination of the two approaches is the best performing.

Looking ahead, this means that the dermatoscope – already indispensable for the early detection of melanoma – could also become a tool for estimating the aggressiveness of the tumour in advance, even before surgery. This would allow for more targeted monitoring and more personalised treatment choices, for example to decide who will need additional treatments or closer monitoring.

The authors note, however, that this is a retrospective study and that the results will have to be confirmed by new research on even greater numbers of patients before entering clinical practice.

Prof. Iris Zalaudek, professor of Cutaneous and Venereal Diseases at UniTS and head of the Department of Dermatology and of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases and HIV centres at the local health services (ASUGI), argues that ‘the results of the study support the notion that the standard in the melanoma treatment must be an accurate clinical and dermoscopic documentation of the first stages. Dermatoscopy has the potential to act as an additional non-invasive prognostic tool for melanoma, providing valuable information on the biological behaviour of the tumour before excision.’

‘This approach,’ concludes Zalaudek ‘could improve patient risk stratification and support decision-making on adjuvant and neoadjuvant treatments’.

Improve comfort on board, resetting the vibro-acoustic footprint to protect the marine environment and ensure the wellbeing of passengers and crew. These are the ambitious objectives that kicked off the research and development project ‘SilentShip - Acoustic Black Holes, a new frontier for silent ships’.

The initiative, strategic and co-financed by the Regional ERDF Programme of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, sees the Department of Engineering and Architecture (DIA) of the University of Trieste as a scientific partner, alongside industrial leaders such as Fincantieri and Esteco, with the management support of MareFVG. The project leader is Consorzio Servizi Navali e Industriali - CSNI.

The key to innovation lies in Acoustic Black Holes (ABH), devices based on a particular geometry and applied to parts of the structures. In practice, these geometries cause vibrations to ‘concentrate’ there: mechanical energy slows down and is more easily dissipated by dedicated materials or treatments. This is why ABHs are described as real ‘wells’ of vibrational energy. The use of this technology makes it possible to design light and sustainable solutions to limit the propagation of vibrations generated by the main machinery and, consequently, to contain the noise perceived on board and radiated outwards.

Within the project, the Department of Engineering and Architecture will play a crucial role ranging from theory to experimentation. The research team is led by Giada Kyaw Oo D'Amore, junior researcher at DIA, as scientific project manager and UniTS coordinator and includes Prof. Marco Biot, Prof. Mitja Morgut and Giovanni Rognoni, research assistant at DIA.

UniTS researchers will focus on developing advanced numerical models and performing complex simulations aimed at identifying the most effective ABH geometries and the essential parameters to optimise them. These analyses will also produce useful guidelines to establish where to place prototypes on naval structures to obtain the maximum effect.

The research group will also provide a fundamental contribution in the validation phase, in fact it will design and conduct progressive tests, from the laboratory to naval mock-ups, up to the tests on board the ship. These activities will be used to detect the real stresses that vibrations generate, so as to insert them accurately in numerical models. Tests will also be used to verify the effectiveness of the solutions identified on the computer and to refine the prototypes, ensuring that the expected performance in simulation is confirmed even under operational conditions.

Finally, the commitment of the DIA will extend to sustainability and open innovation aspects. The team will carry out Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of the developed product and will conduct studies to apply Open Innovation solutions consistent with the philosophy of Company 5.0, in which technological progress is oriented both towards improving quality of life and reducing environmental impacts. The Department will also contribute to the definition of the technical specifications of the product and the production process.

The ‘SilentShip’ project has a total funding of € 1,366,685.17, with a regional contribution of € 822,016.20 and EU co-financing of € 328,806.48. The budget available to the UniTS team amounts to € 418 130.20, confirming the importance of the research work carried out by researchers at the University of Trieste.

With a duration of 42 months, the project aims to set a new technological frontier in the naval sector, making vessels not only more comfortable for humans, but also more respectful of the marine environment.

Artificial intelligence capable of translating international guidelines for the treatment of hepatitis C into clear clinical responses consistent with the most up-to-date standards: this is the focus of an international study led by Mauro Giuffrè, PhD student at the University of Trieste (Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences) and researcher at the Yale University School of Medicine, validated by the same authors of the European guidelines for the treatment of the disease.

Hepatitis C is an infection caused by HCV, which affects the liver and can develop into chronic forms with serious complications, such as cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. According to the World Health Organisation, around 58 million people worldwide live with chronic infection and there are over 1.5 million new cases each year. WHO has set an ambitious goal of eliminating hepatitis C as a public health threat by 2030, aiming to reduce new infections by 90% and deaths by 65%.

The development of innovative tools based on artificial intelligence, such as that presented in the study by the University of Trieste, plays a key role in pursuing these objectives: Improving adherence to therapeutic guidelines and facilitating access to appropriate care even in contexts with limited resources are concrete steps that can contribute to achieving global targets.

Significant improvements in clinical accuracy

The team developed and tested two innovative approaches to specialise GPT-4 in HCV management. On the one hand, they developed a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) system that integrates European guidelines in real time which has been tested in two variants (RAG-Top1, which retrieves the single most relevant paragraph, and RAG-Top10, which retrieves the ten most relevant paragraphs). On the other hand, they developed a supervised fine-tuning (SFT) training of the language model on the guidelines’ contents.

The results exceeded all expectations: compared to 36.6% of the GPT-4 base model, the RAG-Top10 model achieved an accuracy of 91.7% in expert evaluations, RAG-Top1 81.7% and the SFT model 71.7%, thus achieving significant improvements compared to the standard model.

A novel validation system that includes guideline extenders and clinical experts

What makes this study particularly relevant is the applied validation methodology, a new entry in the scientific literature. Two separate groups of evaluators were recruited. The first group consisted of four expert hepatologists, selected from the lead authors and chairs of the HCV guidelines of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the leading European experts in the treatment of hepatitis C and the drafters of the international guidelines.

A second group of hepatologists was added from a tertiary reference centre (Humanitas Hospital, Rozzano), ensuring a double perspective of evaluation between guideline theorists and clinical

practitioners in the field. This approach allowed us to obtain what the researchers themselves define as ‘an evaluation that approaches the gold standard in defining the accuracy of the outputs.’

Towards responsible integration of AI in medicine

The findings open up concrete perspectives for the use of artificial intelligence in clinical decision support. Both RAG and SFT significantly improve the performance of Large Language Models (LLMs) in managing hepatitis C through guidelines, improving not only the accuracy and clarity of responses, but also the selection of therapeutic regimens in clinical scenarios. The study represents a significant step towards what the authors call ‘the safe integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence into clinical practice’, confirming the potential of specialised and expertly validated language models as concrete decision support tools in medicine, particularly valuable in highly complex contexts such as the management of chronic liver diseases. The research, presented in the article From Guidelines to Real-Time Conversation: Expert-Validated Retrieval-Augmented and Fine-Tuned GPT-4 for Hepatitis C Management, published on Liver International, was supported by Nicola Pugliese and Alessio Aghemo (Humanitas University), bioengineers from the University of Trieste Simone Kresevic and Milos Ajcevic (Department of Engineering and Architecture) and an international network of hepatologists and artificial intelligence specialists, including Dennis L. Shung (Yale), Francesco Negro (University Hospitals of Geneva), Massimo Puoti (Niguarda General Hospital; University of Milan Bicocca), Xavier Forns (Hospital Clínic Barcelona; IDIBAPS; CIBERehd) and Jean-Michel Pawlotsky (UPEC/INSERM; AP-HP Paul Brousse, Paris).

A study conducted by UniTS professors Luca Cegolon (also working at ASUGI Hygiene and Preventive Medicine Department) and Francesca Larese Filon (ASUGI Occupational Medicine Department) has just published in the international scientific journal Contact Dermatitis (Wiley). The researched was focused on contact allergy to 5% nickel sulfate in 31,948 patients who underwent patch tests in Triveneto from 1997 to 2023.

Nickel is the most frequent cause of contact allergy, a hypersensitivity that can develop after repeated and prolonged skin exposures to allergens.

In 1994, EU Directive 94/27/EC restricted the use of nickel in jewellery and other consumer products that may come into contact with human skin.

Although this measure has led to a progressive reduction in nickel awareness in Europe, the benefit has mainly been seen in younger generations. Older people, on the other hand, who were sensitised before the entry into force of the Directive, contribute to the prevalence of nickel contact allergy at the global level.

In detail, the geographical distribution of nickel awareness is heterogeneous and tends to be higher in Mediterranean countries than in Northern Europe, probably due to a late and less stringent application of the European Directive.

Outside the European Union, specifically in North America and Japan, there continues to be a higher and increasing prevalence of nickel sensitisation over the years, due to the lack of restrictive legislation in this area.

The University of Trieste study points out that the prevalence of nickel sensitisation was 26.1% during the study period (1997-2023), followed a progressively decreasing time trend and was significantly lower in males. The trend also revealed an inverted U-shaped trend with respect to the year of birth among women, falling from 35.70% in those born between 1955 and 1964 to 46.24% in those born between 1965 and 1974, to 41.36% among those born in 1975-1984.

The inverted U-shaped pattern of positive reactions to patch tests by year of birth reflects nickel exposure and sensitisation in women aged 20 to 50 years, prior to the entry into force of the European Directive.

As regards the work performed by the persons surveyed, there was a significantly higher prevalence of positive reactions to the patch test among traders, while it was lower among pensioners and housewives. A higher prevalence of positive reactions among traders could reflect prolonged exposure in professions involving coin manipulation, while age-related immunosenescence could explain the lower prevalence of sensitisation in pensioners and housewives.

Although decreasing over the years, the prevalence of positive reactions to nickel has nevertheless remained higher than that of the northern European countries, probably due to a late and less rigorous application of the aforementioned European Directive. Other factors that may contribute to the higher prevalence of sensitisation in Mediterranean countries than in Northern Europe include social trends that have prompted Italian women to use nickel-containing jewellery products early, and higher ambient temperatures that facilitate the release and penetration of allergens into human skin from nickel-containing products.