Le CHRU Nancy Brabois – Photo Creative Commons
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While the filing of files to obtain the creation of a university hospital institute is planned for November 2022, Nancy decision-makers are wondering: go there or not?
After the failure in 2010 when the calls for projects falling within the framework of investments for the future and making it possible to create world-class centers of excellence, associated with hospitals, universities and public and private research establishments were launched, will the hospital and scientific community of Nancy set out again to conquer this label? At the time, the file supported by André Rossinot was carried out by Professor Pierre-Yves Marie. It will not succeed, the international jury validating that presented by the university hospitals of Strasbourg oriented on robotic surgery. It is true that faced with Professor Jacques Marescaux, it was difficult to fight on equal terms, particularly in terms of lobbying. But for the CHRU nothing is completely lost. In 2015, Professors Patrick Rossignol and Faiez Zannad were awarded an RHU (University Hospital Research in Health), the only one retained in the provinces. It is a project which lasted six years, which the National Research Agency evaluated as an exceptional success with around the CHRU of Nancy, INSERM and INRIA.
This research project aimed at combating kidney failure was made possible thanks to the Stanislas cohort (a group of people with common characteristics) which saw researchers use an algorithm which, thanks to artificial intelligence, predict the onset of heart failure symptoms. The second example entering into this program is the Retreat Frail clinical trial, coordinated by Professor Athanase Benetos, conducted in nursing homes on 2,000 patients with hypertension. Treated with more than two blood pressure medications, they eventually become hypotensive. The study should determine whether to withdraw a drug and change usual practices. The rest of the trial prompted Patrick Rossignol to submit another RHU at the end of 2021, which this time was not accepted. A failure ? ” We were told that being held back twice was extremely rare “Consoles the professor leaving for Monaco (read elsewhere).
Abundance of wealth can harm
Let’s go back. In 2017, a second wave of calls for projects to bring out centers of excellence should complete the UIH system. In Nancy, two files are in preparation: one led by Professor Patrick Rossignol to obtain a cardiorenal IHU, the other by Professor Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet centered on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) therefore gastro -enterology. But wealth is sometimes zero-sum, so that for lack of having been chosen, Nancy sees a train pass a second time that does not stop.
A third wave being planned for November 2022, will Nancy show up again on the starting line? Possible but not sure. Monday, May 23, a meeting of CoSabis (strategic coordination and acceleration in health biology), which aims to define a regional strategy to make the Grand Est a national and European reference territory for translational research in inflammatory rheumatic and intestinal diseases , was held in Reims. CoSabis brings together the Universities of Lorraine, Strasbourg and Reims, the University Hospital of Nancy, the University Hospitals of Strasbourg and the University Hospital of Reims. The idea that seems to emerge is rather that of a hospital network bringing together Strasbourg, Nancy, Reims, Luxembourg and a Parisian hospital. Is this a way to wave the white flag? It is allowed to think so. But it is also certain that Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet is preparing a file which has a real chance of succeeding… if a competing project does not come tumbling through his legs and if he manages to get out of the labyrinth where others are advancing by clearing the field using the weapons of lobbying. It’s not Brussels but almost…
Clinical research versus basic research
According to fine connoisseurs of the file, Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet’s problem is that to cement the innovation process, it is necessary to rely on fundamental research. However, if he and Patrick Rossignol are champions of clinical research, they cannot rely on fundamental research, an area where Strasbourg is much more competitive than Nancy. It is really a matter of lobbying. You absolutely need a file with small onions to convince the international jury. In Nancy we are not sufficiently on the front of the stage, that is why we have trouble obtaining major European files, explains this same source.
This also applies to RHUs. The proof, for the files submitted at the start of 2021 and awarded at the end of that same year, Patrick Rossignol, as already indicated, and Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet applied unsuccessfully. On the other hand, Strasbourg obtained on the same date an RHU on liver diseases. With a university hospital institute on digestive robotics and a “liver” RHU, Strasbourg performs well in the field of digestive and autoimmune pathologies. This is why it is rumored in authorized hospital circles that they are ready to build a golden bridge to welcome Laurent Peyrin-Biroulet to Alsace with the red carpet, the honors and the means that go with it. Comment from an observer very familiar with these questions relating to struggles for influence and the financial artillery made available: when we see the successes of Strasbourg -Idex (initiatives of excellence) better endowed than the Labex (laboratories of Excellence), the IHU, the RHUs, the ERCs (European funding) and finally the Nobel Prizes – we understand better why Nancy struggles to build competitive responses and to support its candidates and their projects. Jean-Marie Dubois, who came close to the Grail against a researcher from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, could testify to this…
As part of the France 2030 plan, which sees the State devote one billion euros to strengthening our medical research capacity, an envelope of 300 million euros has been released to create six new University Hospital Institutes. The structure which brings together researchers, teacher-researchers and health personnel, associates at the same time a university, a health establishment, one or more research organizations, criteria present in Nancy. Go or not? This is again the dilemma. We give you part of the answer: Nancy shake it up, it’s time. And if the “research-university-health” strategic committee has a usefulness embellished with efficiency, now is the time to show it.
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