On September 22, Marseille hosted the second annual Inter-IHU Day. Co-organized by the IHU Méditerranée Infection and the IHU Prism, this national event brought together all members of the IHU-France alliance.
The shared goal? To create real momentum on the ground to promote the sharing of experiences and strengthen cooperation among the institutes.
The IHU-France Alliance: A Rapidly Expanding Network of Excellence
The creation of the University Hospital Institutes (IHU) marked a turning point for French medical research. The ambition was clear, and the approach was straightforward: to pioneer the medicine of tomorrow by bringing together scientific and medical excellence in a single location focused on a specialized field.
From just 6 in 2011, there are now 19, spread across the country and covering the full range of medical and surgical fields. This unique force brings together university hospitals, universities, and major public research organizations. It represents a “made in France” translational research capacity capable of competing with major international innovation hubs.
Working in Synergy to Accelerate Innovation in Health
The first Inter-IHU Day held in Paris laid the groundwork for the network; this edition in Marseille marked the transition to action.
Gathered for plenary sessions and several thematic workshops, about 100 participants discussed topics central to the IHUs’ missions: network dynamics and collaborations, prevention, data utilization, and training.
One major area of cooperation identified is the utilization of health data, with the IHU-France alliance playing a decisive role at the national level in facilitating the use of health data and developing reliable and sovereign AI models. In this regard, the flagship national MediTwin project—which develops digital twins for personalized medicine, led by Dassault Systèmes and bringing together seven IHUs with Inria—is a perfect example of the IHUs’ ability to collectively create a virtuous cycle that links healthcare to research, thereby providing solutions to unmet medical needs.
Interdisciplinarity Dedicated Exclusively to Patients
The joint organization of this event by the IHU Méditerranée Infection (infectious diseases) and the IHU Prism (oncology) perfectly illustrated interdisciplinarity—the hallmark of the IHU-France alliance and a true asset for innovation in healthcare.
Working to safeguard the common good of health, meet clinical needs, maintain the agility required for innovation, and bring together fields of expertise in research and care: this is the IHU-France Alliance’s formula for developing large-scale projects. Ultimately, this collective effort has a single guiding principle: to rapidly transform these scientific advances into concrete solutions for patients, both today and tomorrow.
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