The IA Grand Est ENACT is spotlighting Nicolas Padoy, Scientific Director of the IHU Strasbourg and Director of Research in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence. His work focuses on developing innovative solutions for AI-assisted surgery, combining computer vision, machine learning, and robotics.
This spotlight highlights ENACT’s commitment to promoting AI research chairs in the Grand Est region and underscores Nicolas Padoy’s key role in integrating these technologies into healthcare.
An ambitious project to transform the patient care pathway
The FAST-Tx project (Fast Analysis and Surgical Treatment – Thorax), winner of the 2025 FORCE Foundation Award for Innovation and Health Research, has reached a decisive milestone with the operational start of its first pre-clinical study phase at IHU Strasbourg.
Led by Prof. Pierre-Emmanuel FALCOZ and Dr. Cezar Matau, this project aims to reduce the time between diagnosis and treatment of suspicious pulmonary nodules to a single day — a major step forward for patients and a true paradigm shift in care organization.
In vivo testing to validate technological innovations
After several months of preparation, the teams from IHU Strasbourg and the University Hospitals of Strasbourg have launched the active phase of operational experiments, marked by the arrival of Intuitive’s ION robotic platform at the IHU. The project also integrates Visible Patient Lab’s digital models and Asaria’s EagleEye augmented reality system, which leverages imaging data from the ION robot, CBCT (Cone Beam Computed Tomography), and the bronchoscope.
FAST-Tx embodies the convergence of robotic surgery, augmented reality, digital twin technology, and artificial intelligence to accelerate diagnosis and treatment while improving the patient experience. This innovative approach is made possible by IHU Strasbourg’s cutting-edge infrastructure and demonstrates how translational research can generate tangible, directly beneficial solutions for clinical care.
FAST-Tx is built on close collaboration between researchers, clinicians, and industry partners, showcasing the potential of medical innovation when clinical expertise and technological progress come together.
Towards faster, more precise, and more human medicine
With the operational launch of this pre-clinical phase, FAST-Tx marks a strategic milestone in the multidisciplinary outreach of IHU Strasbourg and its partners, who are proud to contribute to this major advancement in the fight against lung cancer.
Listen to the interview (French) with Professor Jean Sibilia on ici Alsace As part of the launch of the pre-clinical phase of the FAST-Tx project, Professor Jean Sibilia, President of the FORCE Foundation for Innovation and Research in Health and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Strasbourg, was a guest on Ici Alsace radio on Tuesday, October 21.
During the interview, he discussed the challenges of the FAST-Tx project and the mission of the Strasbourg IHU: to accelerate the transfer of innovation to patients and strengthen synergies between research, clinical practice, and industry.
IHU Strasbourg and the CAMMA Team Stand Out at MICCAI 2025, the Leading Conference for Research in Digital Surgery.
CAMMA(Computer Assisted Medical and Minimally-invasive Applications), a joint team between IHU Strasbourg and the ICube laboratory of the University of Strasbourg, made a strong showing at the 28th edition of the MICCAI Conference (Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Interventions), held in Daejeon, South Korea, from September 23 to 27, 2025. Led by Prof. Nicolas Padoy, Scientific Director and Head of Computer Science and AI Research at IHU Strasbourg, CAMMA has risen to the top tier of global research teams in surgical data science and artificial intelligence.
An Exemplary Scientific Output
Six articles were accepted and presented at the main conference following a highly selective process (overall acceptance rate of 29%), confirming CAMMA’s scientific excellence. This year, the articles focused on four themes:
Multimodal and weakly supervised learning,
3D modeling of surgical scenes,
Recognition of surgical activities,
AI applied to gynecological oncology.
One of the articles was awarded the MICCAI 2025 Young Scientist Award.
At the crossroads of research and entrepreneurship
The innovative momentum at IHU Strasbourg has once again been demonstrated with the creation of a spin-off based on CAMMA’s work, Scialytics, which is developing an artificial intelligence ecosystem designed to measure and reduce surgical risks. Scialytics was awarded second prize in the Startup Village Pitch Competition, recognizing its potential for clinical, technological, and entrepreneurial impact.
CLINICCAI – A successful fifth edition
Created in 2021 during the MICCAI congress in Strasbourg by Prof. Nicolas Padoy, CLINICCAI (Clinical Translation of Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention) has established itself as a key event of the congress.
The 2025 edition once again attracted a large audience of researchers, clinicians, and industryprofessionals, confirming its role as an essential platform for exchanges between science, technology, and clinical practice.
Dr. Pietro Mascagni, clinical research advisor specializing in artificial intelligence and medical informatics at IHU Strasbourg, spoke at the “From Idea to Product” panel, sharing his experience in transforming technological innovations into concrete clinical solutions.
Major international challenges and workshops
The IHU and CAMMA have also contributed to several major initiatives:
SAGES Critical View of Safety (CVS) Lighthouse Challenge, organized in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the prestigious Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES). This competition mobilized the global surgical AI community around a single goal: to improve the automated assessment of critical safety views in laparoscopic cholecystectomy, with record numbers: 1,000 surgical videos from 24 countries, 67 contributing surgeons, 5,400 annotations produced, and 35 methods proposed by 14 teams.
The MICCAI CREATE workshop, dedicated to clinical robotics and embodied artificial intelligence, was a highlight with a presentation by Nicolas Padoy: “Harnessing the Power of Vision and Language to Improve Surgical Safety.”
These achievements illustrate the mission of the IHU Strasbourg and CAMMA at MICCAI 2025: to bring together academic research excellence, technological innovation, and clinical impact to transform the surgery of tomorrow.
The BEST Innovation course revealed its 14th Strasbourg edition in August 2025. Created in 2011, the BEST course aims to educate in Minimally Invasive Surgical Strategies (MISS), regardless of participants’ professional background, and to make this training appealing, spurring surgical innovation. The 2025 Challenge was “Preventing stroke from clots hidden in the left atrial appendage”.
Key Highlights
Multidisplinary Cohort
30 participants were accepted this year: 12 with clinical background, 9 with engineering background and 9 with innovation background.
Massive mobilization of international specialists
25 faculty members and onsite trainers were mobilized for the course to mentor, challenge, inspire, and share stories of successes and failures.
Learning through play
Lots of fun was had too, with teambuilding and social events to unleash creativity. Creative thinking outside of the assigned science project was led by artist Laure Krug. Students worked on a collective art piece that can be seen on the ground-floor cafeteria glass wall.
For the second year, the BEST Summer School welcomed painter and visual artist Laure Krug as artist-in-residence. She led a unique collaborative artistic performance involving students, coaches, surgeon experts, and entrepreneurs.
This collaboration resulted in the creation of a unique fresco inspired by the BEST “spaceship” odyssey, which successfully achieved its 14th revolution at the edge of the surgical innovation galaxy.
Bringing a fresh perspective to make change happen : this is the convergence of art, surgery and innovation united by a common quest for creativity and transformation.
RDS, led by Elie Lobel, has just raised €14 million to accelerate the rollout of its MultiSense® connected patch for post-operative monitoring in Europe and the US market. A long-standing partner of IHU Strasbourg, RDS illustrates the vitality of the healthcare innovation ecosystem within the Nexmed medical technology cluster.
A smart patch to transform post-operative patient monitoring
RDS (Advancing Patient Pathways™) is developing MultiSense®, a connected patch linked to a digital platform that can continuously measure six key physiological parameters (heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, skin temperature, activity level, and posture).
Validated by several clinical studies and protected by more than 20 patents, this medical device aims to optimize the length of hospital stays and ensure patients’ safe return home. Since March 2024, MultiSense® has been CE marked and its rollout has already begun in around 15 establishments in France, Belgium, and Germany.*
Funding to accelerate European and international development
This Series A fundraising round, amounting to €14 million, will enable RDS to take several strategic steps:
Strengthen its sales and support teams to meet growing demand in Europe;
Deploy its industrial capabilities in France, with the ambition of contributing to French and European health sovereignty;
Launch a medico-economic study (Sense-Eco) on more than 400 patients to objectively assess the impact of MultiSense® on post-operative length of stay and prepare for its reimbursement;
Prepare for its entry into the North American market, with an FDA registration application planned for 2028.
This transaction brings the total funding raised by RDS to approximately €28 million. It was led by the SPI fund, managed by Bpifrance on behalf of the French government, and involves both new investors (Critical Path Ventures) and long-standing partners (MACSF, Capital Grand Est, etc.).
A success that reinforces the mission of the IHU Strasbourg
Founded in California and hosted by the IHU Strasbourg, RDS has been able to evolve in a stimulating environment where clinicians, researchers, and entrepreneurscollaborate to develop innovative medical solutions. The IHU promoted the first clinical trials to validate MultiSense® technology and included RDS in major collaborative projects with European partners (5G-OR and eCAP).
The IHU Strasbourg warmly congratulates Elie Lobel and his remarkable team for this achievement, which will help shape the future of connected health in Europe and beyond.
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