The Programme is promoted by the Center for Medical Sciences. It is a three-year programme, and the official languages are English and Italian.
All training activities are conducted in English, ensuring full accessibility for international students and fostering a global research environment.
The PhD Programme in Human-Centered Precision Medicine was promoted as a highly innovative initiative in the national academic landscape, aiming to combine scientific rigor with proximity to daily clinical practice. It aims to transcend the reductionist approach of traditional precision medicine, which focuses almost exclusively on biomarkers, genetics, and big data, to offer a broader and more integrated view of the individual. The humanistic precision that the Programme seeks to promote recognizes that health and response to treatment depend not only on biological factors, but also on social, psychological, and biographical determinants. From this perspective, the patient is not viewed as a set of data or a genome to be deciphered, but as a person embedded in a relational and cultural context, bearing values, experiences, and preferences that must guide the treatment process. The proposed approach therefore integrates hard sciences and human sciences, molecular data and life histories, in a model of truly personalized medicine that respects the complexity of the individual. The ultimate goal is to develop research and treatment pathways that not only improve clinical effectiveness but also restore the centrality of the person in their biological, psychological, and social integrity.
The programme was first launched in the 2026/2027 academic year (42nd cycle), when the first Medicine and Surgery students graduated.
Further details about the research areas and topics covered by the program can be found in the sections "Research Topics" and "Doctoral Programme Committee and their research interests".
Career Opportunities
The PhD is the highest level of academic qualification and is internationally recognized. The Doctorate in Human-Centered Precision Medicine prepares highly qualified professionals capable of operating at the intersection of clinical research, healthcare practice, and technological innovation, with transversal and multidisciplinary skills that provide access to a broad spectrum of professional opportunities. Graduates trained in this program will be able to pursue academic careers as university researchers or clinical laboratory managers, contributing to the development of innovative studies and the training of new generations of physicians and researchers.
In the healthcare setting, PhDs will be able to assume leadership roles in hospitals, public healthcare agencies, and clinical research centers, leading projects to implement evidence-based practices and promoting innovation in patient management. The skills acquired also enable them to serve as experts in personalized and precision medicine, health technology evaluators, clinical trial design consultants, coordinators of narrative medicine or care co-production programs, and analysts of complex clinical data to support clinical and organizational decisions.
The program also opens up opportunities in the industrial and digital health sectors, in biomedical, pharmaceutical, and technology companies, where PhD graduates can contribute to the development of diagnostic devices, patient monitoring tools, artificial intelligence platforms applied to medicine, and innovative solutions for personalized care. Internationally, the English-language program and the opportunity to participate in European and global networks and projects enable graduates to enter advanced research environments, collaborating with leading scientific institutions and transnational projects.
In short, the program trains professionals capable of integrating scientific knowledge, clinical skills, and ethical sensitivity, becoming leaders in the innovation of person-centered medicine, capable of rapidly translating research findings into concrete improvements in the quality of care and public health.