Improving healthcare for all
Awards made to French healthcare researchers and businesses in April 2022

Awards made to French healthcare researchers and businesses in April 2022

Awards, tributes, winners of calls for projects... Spotlight on French researchers and medtech, biotech and digital health startups that have distinguished themselves through their inventiveness and innovations.

17 May 2022

20 years of TAVI – Professor Cribier rewarded by the ACC

At the start of April 2022, the congress of the American College of Cardiology wanted to present Professor Alain Cribier (Rouen University Hospital Center) with the “Presidential Citation Award”. The interventional cardiologist has developed the Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (TAVI). Just 20 years ago, he placed the first valve in a man with inoperable aortic stenosis, at the Rouen University Hospital Center.

Every year, the “Presidential Citation Award” is presented by the ACC in recognition of an essential contribution in the field of cardiology.

Health data and oncology – three award winners for the Unicancer and Health Data Hub call for expression of interest

On April 5, 2022, Unicancer and the Health Data Hub announced the three award winners of their first UNIBASE Call for Expression of Interest, as part of a joint event organized at PariSanté campus. The three award winners will benefit from support from these two operators, as well as a financial grant from the Health Data Hub. The aim of this program is, in three years, to create a collection of cancer research reference databases which may be designed based on projects of which the data and some results will be made available to the scientific community.

The panel selected three projects:

DASTO, by the Institut Curie, in partnership with the Centre Léon Bérard, the Institut de cancérologie de l’Ouest and the Centre Oscar Lambret. The DASTO project looks at the prediction of the risk of venous thromboembolic disease (VTE) in patients suffering from cancer. By associating the data of the medical dossiers from the ConSoRe tool and the medico-administrative database of the French National Health Insurance System, it will make it possible to better understand the risk factors within a cohort of 100,000 patients.

– ISIS, by the Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest, in partnership with the Institut Curie and the Centre Léon Bérard. The ISIS project aims to evaluate the risk of infertility in young women after breast cancer. To this end it will also combine the data from the medical records provided by the ConSoRe tool and the data of the medico-administrative database of the French National Health Insurance System.
REALIGIST, by the Institut Curie, in partnership with the Institut du Cancer de Montpellier, the Institut Paoli Calmette, Gustave Roussy, the Centre Léon Bérard, the Institut Bergonié and the Centre Oscar Lambret. The REALIGIST project will make it possible to constitute an unprecedented cohort of patients suffering from gastro-intestinal stromal tumors (GIST) in France, rare cancers that belong to the large family of sarcomas. By associating the clinical and biological data from “real life” care and the data from the SNDS (Système National des Données de Santé), this project will make it possible, for the first time, to provide a description of the treatment given to patients suffering from GIST nationally.

Digestive cancers – the four award winners of Servier’s SHAPE challenge

Launched by the Servier laboratory in 2018, the SHAPE program undertakes to support patients suffering from gastro-intestinal cancer, and their families, by including them in each decision taken and by providing them with the tools needed to improve their quality of life and to better support them throughout their cancer treatment. The SHAPE Challenge is an internal call for projects that offers subsidiaries the opportunity to win an award that allows them to implement and to locally manage an initiative, preferably jointly designed with patients suffering from gastro-intestinal cancer. For this 4th edition, 18 projects were presented. On April 21, 2022, the panel of healthcare professionals, caregivers and expert patients chose: 

Equal First:

– The United Kingdom with its HeartburnCancer.net project, a website that provides patients easy access to educational information on the different aspects of gastro-intestinal cancer.

– Lithuania with its project “Don’t let cancer disrupt your life. We are here to help you to navigate!” which plans the training of cancer survivors to offer support to current patients, the creation of a web portal to provide information on gastro-intestinal cancers and the psychological support of patients and their relatives.

3rd:  Brazil with “Empathy Ambassadors – Colorectal cancer caregivers”. This initiative is aimed at distributing educational videos that were designed with caregivers. In these videos they explain the specificities of their role to inspire their peers. A presence on social networks, a brochure and monthly meetings with patients are also planned.

The “Prix Spécial du Jury” was awarded to China, for the MEDLEY project, carried out in collaboration with patients’ associations, to improve disease awareness and the development of public policies. A digital questionnaire will make it possible to identify the needs of patients.

Servier’s Oncology franchise will follow the award winners as they develop their project at the local level.

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