Digital healthcare: a transforming reality
The healthcare sector is undergoing a major transformation, thanks to the widespread adoption of digital tools. From medical imaging to care path management and predictive medicine, digital technology is omnipresent, offering new perspectives for improving the quality of care. Through its research, the CGS has highlighted how these technologies are transforming hospital practices, facilitating home monitoring (telesurveillance), coordination between town and hospital, as well as the use of AI tools in fields such as anatomopathology, a medical specialty involving the examination of tissues or cells, to spot and analyze disease-related abnormalities.
These advances, often grouped together under the term “4P medicine” (predictive, preventive, personalized, participatory), not only enable more targeted treatment, but also greater involvement of patients in their healthcare journey. For example, projects such as Covidom, an e-health application that enables patients with or suspected of having Covid-19, without any sign of seriousness, to benefit from remote monitoring at home, are illustrations of the contribution of digital solutions, enabling long-term monitoring of patients at home, while relieving congestion in hospital structures.
However, implementing these innovations is not without its difficulties. Some 60-80% of digital projects fail during the deployment phase (source: FHF Research and Innovations fund). However, work carried out at Les Mines shows that failures can often be explained by insufficient consideration of the organizational constraints of healthcare establishments.
Covidom application
Structuring projects supported by the CGS
The CGS is involved in a number of research and support projects, illustrating the diversity of organizational issues linked to the introduction of digital healthcare:
- Implementing AI in healthcare: the CGS is working on the integration of AI in anatomopathology. While algorithms can help to improve diagnostic accuracy, they also require the reorganization of teams, processes and decision-making circuits. The challenge is not only technological, but also human and organizational.
- Computerized patient records (CPR): a study of the impact of CPR on hospital organizations shows that the stakes go far beyond the simple digitization of records. It calls routines into question and requires healthcare professionals to adopt new working methods.
- Patient pathway management: initiatives such as the establishment of city-hospital coordination platforms in the Île-de-France region aim to better organize patient care, particularly for those suffering from chronic illnesses. These platforms facilitate communication between the various players in the care chain, but require substantial organizational support to be effective. Deploying technology is not enough: coordination structures and performance criteria also need to be revised.
- Another example of digital reorganization is the creation ofhospital “tiers-lieux”, spaces dedicated to collaboration with start-ups. These environments encourage innovation, but require a reconfiguration of relations between the hospital and its external partners. Here again, digital transformation becomes a lever for organizational change.
These examples show that the implementation of digital technology in healthcare goes far beyond the simple adoption of new technologies. It requires a complete reassessment of the way organizations operate.
The MedTechLab Tiers-Lieu d’Expérimentation is part of the “Santé numérique” acceleration strategy of the France 2030 plan.
The limits of digital transformation
While the promises of digital healthcare are great, they also come with several limitations:
- Healthcare professionals: many practitioners don’t have the time to train in the new digital tools, which limits their effective adoption. Digital tools must be designed with their constraints in mind, otherwise they will be rejected or under-utilized.
- Patients: a significant proportion of the population remains digitally excluded, as demonstrated by the Emmaüs Connect initiative. Access to digital administrative procedures, such as those related to healthcare, is still out of reach for many people. What’s more, patients are often not involved in the design of the technologies intended for them, which leads to discrepancies between the tools proposed and their actual uses.
- Industrial players: often far removed from the field, some manufacturers develop solutions that are too focused on technology, to the detriment of users’ needs. The CGS insists on the importance of reintegrating organizational issues at the heart of these innovations, notably through co-design approaches involving all stakeholders.
Emmaüs Connect implements initiatives to give people in precarious social and digital situations access to the online tools that have become indispensable.
Organization, an often neglected aspect
A central point is the importance of organization in the implementation of digital technologies in healthcare. Each new digital device requires a redefinition of roles, processes and administrative circuits. It is necessary to rethink organizational structures even before adopting a digital tool. This dimension is often overlooked, leading to failures during the deployment phase.
Hospital organization, like the city-hospital ecosystem, must be ready to absorb new technologies. This implies :
- A review of skills: healthcare professionals need to be trained to use the new tools. New professions can also be created to meet these emerging needs.
- A reorganization of coordination methods: digital technology disrupts traditional coordination circuits. It is crucial to ensure that hospital structures and local healthcare providers can work in a coordinated way, notably through information-sharing platforms.
- A change in the evaluation model: hospital performance criteria must evolve to take account of these new digital realities.
Digital as a stimulus for organizational transformation
The adoption of digital technology in the healthcare sector is a genuine process of organizational transformation, and not simply a technological change. Through its research and support projects, the CGS shows that this transformation must be thought through and anticipated over the long term. For decision-makers, it is essential to promote a systematic approach to organizational support when implementing new technologies. Digital technology can be a powerful lever for change, but it will only have an impact if organizations are prepared to adapt in depth.
ITN: developing innovative projects for the new wave of digital transformation
Created in March 2024, the Mines Paris – PSL ITN is positioned as a central player in the digital transition, mobilizing the expertise of its 18 research centers. With strategic focus areas such as digital health, digital engineering and cultural industries, the ITN federates knowledge to meet the economic, social and technological challenges of our time. Driven by a responsible and collaborative approach, it aims to accelerate innovation and guide public and private players in this transformation.
A seminar to meet the challenges of digital health
The Santé Numérique seminar brought together researchers, industrialists and decision-makers to discuss the major challenges of digitizing healthcare. In a world where technological advances are redefining medical practices, digital health is emerging as a lever for meeting the current and future challenges facing the healthcare system. ITN explores these transformations through various themes: the reinvention of hospital infrastructures, the development of digital twins for precision medicine, and the integration of artificial intelligence at all levels of healthcare. These issues are not limited to technological innovation, but also question the social, economic and ethical dimensions of connected, intelligent medicine, paving the way for more personalized, accessible and predictive care.
