The main objective of the WHOPS (Well-being and Health through Organizational Process and Services) axis is to propose tool-based approaches and methods for organizational engineering, making it possible to design, configure, diagnose, evaluate, improve, optimize and manage health systems and wellness services.
Research into wellness services is helping to make the healthcare system more comprehensive, efficient, personalized and human-centered, focusing on the needs of individuals and communities as they move through life.
Fields of application
Work in the Organizational systems for health and well-being area is aimed at healthcare providers, producers of health and well-being goods and services (health and medico-social establishments, medical and paramedical practices, SSIAD-type service providers, analysis laboratories, medical device manufacturers, pharmacies, solution publishers, etc.), healthcare system regulatory and steering bodies (ARS, DGOS, etc.) and beneficiaries (patients, family members, caregivers).
Various organizational issues can be addressed to meet emerging needs, such as the challenges posed by an aging population, chronic diseases and mental health problems. Optimizing patient flows within a care department, or between departments, or at the level of the health and life course. Several fields of application are favored:
- call centers: EMS, appointment scheduling, disability services;
- medication management (drug circuit);
- homecare and territorial networking of healthcare services;
- hospital, patient pathways in operating theatres and emergency departments, bed and resource management.
Scientific challenges
Three main challenges are associated with these scientific issues:
- How can we identify and represent the elements of knowledge that will enable us to discover and model life courses by comparing several sources of data? This is a central issue, since life-course models are rarely formalized, even though they are a prerequisite for any engineering approach.
- How can we assess the organizational impact of unexpected events, to enable agile, predictive management of life-cycles? This question aims to analyze and minimize the impact of sources of uncertainty that disrupt the smooth running of healthcare organizations.
- How can we model and optimize interactions between the various players in healthcare service systems (hospitals, private healthcare professionals, homecare services, etc.) to improve coordination and continuity of care, particularly in the city-hospital link? This lock integrates a strategic and systemic dimension aimed at developing tools for a macro vision of welfare and care service systems.
These scientific hurdles illustrate the complex, multi-dimensional challenges associated with combining research into healthcare system organization and wellness services with engineering and organizational engineering. Overcoming these obstacles requires an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, as well as methodological and technological innovations. Multidisciplinary collaborations with physicians, ergonomists, sociologists, geographers, architects, demographers, etc., are envisaged.
Methodological approaches
The methodological approaches we use are essentially applied research projects, often based on business or field issues. Observations and interviews to gather knowledge and management rules are the first stage. Collecting or extracting data from the information system is a parallel or complementary stage. After processing, these two steps are used to build data and knowledge models, enabling, if required, the construction of dynamic flow simulation models serving as true virtual replicas (or digital twins) on which “in silico” experiments can be carried out to design, configure, diagnose, improve and pilot the real system, prior to actual implementation. These approaches aim to optimize processes, provide decision-support tools and improve resource management within healthcare and wellness organizations.
- POSITIONING OF THE AXIS IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT
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The axis is fully in line with the reform of the French healthcare system through Ma santé 2022, and more recently the 100% CPTS plan (Communities Professionnelles Territoriales de Santé) and the innovation santé 2030 plan. The WHOPS axis has initiated promising contacts with industrial and institutional partners faced with Sustainable Development Goals no. 3 (Good health and well-being) and no. 16 (Peace, justice and effective institutions), underlining the societal relevance of its work.
The axis intends to draw on a network of relevant socio-economic partners at different levels. At local and regional level, collaborations are envisaged with key players such as the IUCT Oncopole Toulouse, local authorities, and other organizations whose expertise contributes to the axis' objectives, such as ARS Occitanie and e-santé Occitanie.
On a national level, the axis is an active member of communities of interest such as the ITM “Health and AI” community, the MACS, ROD and MaDICS GdRs, and the SAGIP GISEH, INCAS and JN WGs. Active academic collaborations are being developed with the ITM network, such as the École des Mines de Saint Étienne and Télécom-Paris.
Internationally, a joint laboratory with a Belgian hospital group has been set up for the period 2024-2029. Finally, the axis is targeting publications in “Healthcare and well-being”-oriented journals or conferences to foster new partnerships.