The DEKA Academy is the hands-on clinical training programme of DEKA, the medical laser manufacturer based in Florence, Italy. Dr Sin Yong attended the October 2026 academy as a Global Key Opinion Leader for DEKA and as a participant. Over three days he trained on the TORO, RedTouch PRO and SmartXide Tetra PRO platforms, met the DEKA clinical research team with whom he is co-authoring a paper, and visited the El.En. factory in Calenzano. His certificate of attendance was issued by DEKA’s Laser Training Department.
Why a Laser Academy in Florence
DEKA is a Florentine company. Its parent, El.En., was founded in 1981 in Calenzano, just north-west of the city centre, and is listed on the Italian stock exchange. DEKA has traded from the same Calenzano address since 1991 and now supplies medical lasers to more than 120 countries.
That matters to a physician for a simple reason. The people who decide a laser’s pulse shapes, scanner patterns and safety limits work in the same buildings as the people who run its clinical training. At an academy in Florence you can ask why a setting exists, and the person who designed it may be in the room.
The corridors also show the group’s other work. El.En. builds laser systems for the conservation of artworks, and the brochures on its tables show Florentine sculpture and frescoes being cleaned with the same physics that is used on skin.
What this training means in clinic is on aesthetic doctor Singapore.
Three Days, Three Platforms
The academy was organised around three main platforms. The clinical sessions on the first two days were held at Villa Donatello in Florence, with live demonstrations by DEKA’s clinical faculty in small groups around each platform. The third day moved to the factory.
Day oneTORO & RedTouch PROQ-switched and picosecond emission at 1064, 532 and 785 nm, and 675 nm fractional non-ablative.
Day twoTetra PRO10,600 nm fractional CO2, from CoolPeel to deep resurfacing.
Day threeEl.En. & the co-authorsThe factory in Calenzano, the research team and the certificates.
With the DEKA team at the Academy · Villa Donatello, Florence · On the steps with Dr Giustino
Day One — TORO and RedTouch PRO
TORO is DEKA’s hybrid pigment platform. It pairs a Q-switched Nd:YAG source at 1064 nm and 532 nm, firing nanosecond pulses, with a 785 nm picosecond wavelength generated by a titanium-sapphire source. A long-pulsed 1064 nm thermal mode completes it. DEKA lists its uses as benign pigmented lesions, tattoo removal, skin toning, carbon peel, scars and melasma. It positions the 785 nm wavelength for skin types III to V, which covers much of the skin seen in clinic in Singapore. TORO is the platform behind Dr Sin Yong’s T2 Frax Radiance protocol for pigment and tone.
The opening lecture set out what DEKA calls its “extremely flexible laser emission”: four ways of delivering the same energy.
| Mode | Pulse, as presented | Listed uses |
|---|
| Pico | One very short pulse, under 500 ps | Rejuvenation, toning, scars, pigmented lesions, tattoos |
| Nano | One 6 ns pulse at high peak power | Tattoos, pigmented lesions, rejuvenation, hair lightening |
| Double | Two 6 ns pulses, 0.15 ms apart | Pigmented lesions, rejuvenation, hair lightening |
| Thermal | One longer pulse of 300 µs | Rejuvenation, onychomycosis, inflammatory acne |
Source: DEKA academy lecture slide, Florence, October 2026. The listed uses are the manufacturer’s, not a promise of outcome.
Day one also brought a session from Dr Giustino of the DEKA clinical faculty, who shared his own experience with the platforms; he is beside Dr Sin Yong on the steps in the group photograph above.
The useful part was not the table. It was hearing the faculty explain, at the demonstrations, when a nanosecond pulse is the better tool than a picosecond one, and when heat is wanted rather than avoided.
The afternoon moved to RedTouch PRO, which works at 675 nm, a wavelength few aesthetic lasers use. DEKA describes it as fractional and non-ablative: a scanner places microzones of thermal damage, each under 1 mm across, while integrated cooling protects the epidermis. DEKA’s argument is that 675 nm is absorbed by dermal collagen and by melanin rather than mainly by water, which is why it is offered for texture, laxity, pigmentation and melasma. The platform was launched internationally at the World Congress of Dermatology in Singapore in 2023. Dr Sin Yong’s page on 675 nm laser treatment covers it in more depth.
Day one opens with TORO · Between sessions, day one · The day-one group
Day Two — Tetra PRO
SmartXide Tetra PRO is DEKA’s fractional CO2 laser at 10,600 nm. It runs at up to 40 W with a scan area of up to 20 × 20 mm, and its pulse can be shaped to trade ablation against heating. The same platform can do CoolPeel, a superficial, low-downtime pass, and deep resurfacing. Tetra PRO received US FDA 510(k) clearance in March 2024.
It is the platform behind Dr Sin Yong’s S3 Resurfacing Lift and 4D Scar Reconstruction, so a full day on it was less an introduction than a calibration: comparing his depth and density choices for acne scarring with the faculty’s.
The settings matter more than the machine. Florence is where you hear, from the people who set the limits, why the limits are where they are.Dr Sin Yong
Day two also brought a long discussion with Prof Paolo Bonan, the Florence dermatologist and global DEKA speaker who is one of the best-known names in laser dermatology internationally. In his office the two talked through how different lasers can be combined within one treatment plan, rather than used in isolation. RedTouch PRO and TORO together was the example they kept returning to: 675 nm working at the dermis alongside TORO’s picosecond and nanosecond pulses on pigment, with the order, spacing and settings of each chosen for the skin in front of them.
With Prof Paolo Bonan in his office · Discussing combined laser plans with Prof Bonan
Day two, Villa Donatello · With Dr Mikaela at the demonstrations
Day Three — El.En., Calenzano
The third day moved to the El.En. headquarters in Calenzano, where Dr Sin Yong was hosted by Francesco Badii of the El.En. group. The group was welcomed with the flags of the countries represented, Singapore among them, and shown through the offices, the service centre and the showroom, where DEKA’s current platforms stand side by side. A lit world-map wall carries the company’s line: “Imagine a place where the most advanced technology meets light. We are that place.”
With Francesco Badii in the DEKA showroom · On the world map, from Florence to Singapore
El.En. headquarters, Calenzano · Singapore among the flags · At the DEKA backdrop
The day ended with certificates. Dr Sin Yong’s certificate of attendance, issued by DEKA’s Laser Training Department, lists TORO, SmartPico, Onda PRO, RedTouch PRO and the CO2 family.
Certificate of attendance · The group at DEKA · The class, certified
Meeting the Co-Authors
Day three also brought the meeting that mattered most to Dr Sin Yong: with DEKA’s clinical research team in Calenzano. Dr Sin Yong is first author of a clinical paper on his S3 Resurfacing protocol on Tetra PRO for acne scarring, currently in preparation, with Irene Fusco and Laura Pieri of DEKA’s clinical research team as his co-authors. Florence was a chance to work through the manuscript in person rather than across time zones, and he is looking forward to its release.
Dr Sin YongFirst author
Irene FuscoCo-author · Biologist, DEKA clinical research
Laura PieriCo-author · Biologist, DEKA clinical research · unable to attend in Florence
Tiziano ZingoniDirector of DEKA’s clinical research team · Biomedical engineer
Biomedical engineer Francesca Madeddu joined the Florence meeting in Laura Pieri’s place.
With Tiziano Zingoni, Irene Fusco and Francesca Madeddu · Working through the manuscript
The clinical research team also presented its work on microwave energy, the physics behind Onda PRO: how 2.45 GHz microwaves heat the fat layer while the skin above stays cooler. It was a reminder that the evidence behind a platform is built by people like these, one study at a time, and that a physician’s case series is part of that work.
Attending as a DEKA Key Opinion Leader, and as a Student
Dr Sin Yong holds Key Opinion Leader appointments with several device manufacturers, DEKA among them. A KOL appointment is a working relationship: the manufacturer asks what a physician has learned about a platform in real clinical conditions, and the physician is invited to share his clinical expertise with other doctors.
He went to Florence in both roles. As a KOL he compared notes with the faculty and engineers on settings for Asian skin. As a participant he sat through the lectures, took his turn at the demonstrations and earned the same certificate as everyone else. Platforms change and software updates add modes. A physician who stops training on a device he already knows is usually the last to find out.
What This Means in Clinic
None of this changes what any single treatment can promise, and no course does. What it changes is the reasoning behind a plan: knowing which mode a platform’s designers intended for which target, where its safety margins sit, and how the published evidence on it is gathered.
At consultation that shows up as plain answers: why one wavelength is suggested and not another, why one pass is planned rather than three, and when the right answer is a different approach or no treatment at all. The platforms used in the practice, and the certification each holds, are listed on the Devices page. The practice’s wider DEKA work is described on the DEKA Centre of Excellence page.
Florence, Between Sessions
The evenings belonged to the city and the company: a pietra dura workshop near Santa Croce, the view over the city from Piazzale Michelangelo, and long dinners with fellow physicians.
A pietra dura workshop · Piazzale Michelangelo · Dinner with colleagues
