Health

 

Health – a center for experimentation

Castres-Mazamet's medical sector covers 200,000 inhabitants and includes a hospital center that reaches out from Saint-Pons (34) to Revel (31). Its offer is diversified in terms of inpatient and care structures.

Technical and scientific resources:

  • Technology resources and transfer center
  • Usable zootechnics
  • An agro/bio-industry technological center
  • Research partnerships with “grandes écoles” and universities

A network and key players in the health sector in this region:


High level education:

  • ISIS IT and IS engineering program for the health sector
  • Quality degree for the agri-food industry and bio-industry
  • Nursing education and preparation for the entrance exam to the nursing care training institutions 

Leading industrial players in the health sector:

  • 2,078 jobs and 70 companies in the Castres-Mazamet area
  • The home of the Pierre Fabre Group, which employs 2,000 individuals from 15 countries

Structuring projects to support the Cancer-Bio-Health Cluster:

  • Territorial healthcare planning supporting Toulouse: Castres-Mazamet is one of the governing bodies of the Cancer-Bio-Health competitiveness cluster.
  • A regional business site supporting the Canceropole of Toulouse (Langlade): the Causse Espace d’Entreprise covers 200 hectares and supports a hospital and care services center, service industries, digital resources for companies, research and higher education, and bio-health industrial activities
  • Two structuring projects approved by the Cancer-Bio-Health competitiveness cluster: a center for scientific and economic intelligence dedicated to cancer (CISEC), a scientific intelligence tool defined in close collaboration with the national cancer institute (INCA). An e-health project platform based on a teleport and allowing for the development of collaborative inter-company projects.
  • An epidemiological information and follow-up tool on cancer for the “département”: the cancer registry for Tarn.
  • A major partner, heavily involved in territorial development projects in the context of public/private partnerships: The Pierre Fabre Group.
  • The support of university professionals: based on the ISIS “IT and IS for the health sector” engineering program led by the Jean-François Champollion University and the IUT of Castres. This innovative program, approved by the Engineering Accreditation Commission, integrates the perspectives and new professions of the health sector: interoperability of information systems, telemedicine, medical imaging … and is based on research collaborations with the INSA (national institute for applied sciences), the IRIT (computer research institute of Toulouse) and the INPT (national polytechnic institute) of Toulouse.
  • A test region for health and care offerings: a call for experiments under the “20 medium-sized test city” program.

1. What is a center of expertise specialized in the health sector?

A center of expertise is a place that allows for know-how and sets of knowledge in the field of fundamental sciences to come together (therapeutic care or strategies, for example), as well as operational methods and practices.

A center of expertise specialized in health groups together therapeutic strategies, behaviors and practices, as well as infrastructures to manage innovation:

  • Therapeutic strategies are managed by the caregiving community. The presence of a pharmaceutical group in the region may play a lever effect.
  • The behaviors and practices must be implemented in an experimental field: that of e-health (the emerging application of information and communication technologies to health), the objective being to validate these practices after having deployed and analyzed them.
  • The infrastructures are specifically based on a digital high speed platform that allows for communication problems to be handled. The Intercommunal Hospital Center of Castres-Mazamet, the CHIC, is in this sense a crucial part of the infrastructure.

2. We hear of an innovative region for the health sector. What is innovation in the health sector?

Innovation in the health sector must be broken down into a number of areas: therapeutic innovation, innovation in care and innovation in infrastructures:

Therapeutic innovation relates to new molecules that are active in fighting the mechanisms of a pathology. This innovation is not the main concern of Castres-Mazamet, but in the context of the Cancer-Bio-Health competitiveness cluster of Toulouse, for example, this innovation may be included and Castres-Mazamet may serve as an innovation platform.

Patient care is a major field for innovation. Currently, the practice consists of short visits, with long intervals, allowing the doctor to update his/her patient’s knowledge and the patient to acquire information on his/her illness and state of health. 
Technological innovation contributed by information technologies is based on a more sustained doctor/patient relationship and puts a greater amount of data into perspective. This is referred to as continuity of information. We are moving towards preventive care, although not quite towards predictive care. 
For a patient who has been transplanted and is under supervision, technological innovations allow for the anticipation of rejection phenomena and proactive attitudes can therefore be adopted, which is an enormous step forward.

Innovation in terms of infrastructures aims at managing the logistics of health systems remotely. In particular, it can include the ability to test the operations and interoperability of communicating files, such as the case of the communicating file of a patient being treated at home. Indeed, the various files communicate amongst each other (the patient's medical file, the communicating cancerology file, the pharmaceutical file ...)

Today, this represents a field of innovation for Castres-Mazamet, a real challenge to test these complex systems in a real context, as well as their interoperability and interconnection.
A space that allows for innovation is therefore a space that allows for the coherence and relevance of new e-health methods to be tested.

3. A “reference technopole in the health and digital sectors”: can you tell us why the Castres-Mazamet Technopole is a reference technopole in the health and digital sectors? What actions could Castres-Mazamet undertake in this regard?

Castres-Mazamet is a region appropriate for  debates in the field of health due to its political and industrial objectives, the presence of university professionals, in particular the ISIS Engineering School, dedicated to IT and IS for the health sector.
The Castres-Mazamet Technopole is part of the regional movement in the context of the Cancer-Bio-Health competitiveness cluster and the European Telemedicine Network, and continues to strengthen regional partnerships in order to become an international meeting place.

Installation and facilities solutions for companies:

  • A site for fine chemistry activities
  • Premises equipped with laboratories
  • A site for activities related to the hospital sector