Virginia Doan, why finally organize the University of e-health in November after having canceled it in June?
The conditions were not right to organize the event in good conditions in June. But we did not want to resign ourselves to a blank year. We therefore worked on an edition for the end of November in conjunction with our partners. Since the beginning of July, the Technopole has had a new president, Nathalie de Villeneuve.
Is the University of e-health reaching a turning point in its history?
This is the eighteenth edition, which is no small feat! We remain in the top four e-health events in France. Our University has helped strengthen the digital health sector since Castres-Mazamet. It has helped grow an entire territorial ecosystem (schools, start-ups, companies, etc.) on this theme. But, at a time when digital technology is constantly evolving, with artificial intelligence constantly on the rise, it is not useless to ask questions. This is the right time to imagine the e-health University of the future.
What will the 2024 edition look like?
It will take place on November 26 and 27. We are returning to the Isis e-health engineering school after organizing the event in downtown Castres. At eighteen, it is not illogical to return to the benches of a university! The theme is “Prevention, Territories and Data: the pillars of e-health”. It is a refocusing on our fundamentals. These three words summarize the objective of our event: to defend e-health that uses data to protect individuals and develop territories. Over two days, twenty to thirty discussion sessions will be organized. We will notably welcome Thomas Serval, director of Baracoda. He is an entrepreneur who optimizes everyday objects in a preventive approach, such as the connected toothbrush. We will also welcome Professor Antoine Piau, vice-president of the Digital Health Agency (ANS). Finally, the Occitanie Region will take advantage of the event to organize its first regional day of the digital health sector in Occitanie. This will be an important moment that will consolidate the digital health positioning of the Region.
Nathalie de Villeneuve, you have just become president of the Technopole de Castres-Mazamet. What is your view of the event she is organizing?
I note the commitment of partners, particularly private ones, to this event. They have been able to mobilize, alongside the communities, to ensure a 2024 edition. At the end, we will open a time of reflection on the 2025 edition. We want to give a new framework to the event, ensuring that it always contributes to the development of the territory and the local ecosystem. We are going to rethink the format so that the event does not run out of steam, perhaps by specializing it more. The challenge is for it to be at the heart of the territorial strategy on e-health, while having a national, even international, dimension.
Interview by Matthias Hardoy
In the photo: Virginia Doan, director, and Nathalie de Villeneuve, new president of the Castres-Mazamet Technopole. Credit: Laurent Frézouls
