You have already been introduced with the aspirations and the objectives of Anne-Lise Giraud regarding reConnect in a previous article.
Today, Anne-Dominique Lodeho-Devauchelle, Claire Paquet and Yann Nguyen, members of reConnect’s executive team, are going to enlighten us about their role in the structure and the ambitions that drive them.
What is your role within reConnect?
Anne-Dominique Lodeho-Devauchelle : As deputy director, I contribute to the development of the IHU’s strategy and its day-to-day application. It includes ensuring good coordination between the founding members, partners, management and team members.
I’m also responsible for supervising and steering the administrative and financial aspects of the IHU, as well as the coordinating of the various support services that are involved.
Yann Nguyen : My role clinic director is to facilitate the exchanges and collaboration between researchers of the Hearing Institute and doctors of the AP-HP hospitals, to listen to and refine patients’ needs, to develop lab responses and evaluate our innovative therapeutical approaches.
Claire Paquet : As the scientific director, I am responsible for defining the major scientific orientations and implementing research projects, especially at the Lariboisière hospital. It includes identifying and planning responses to calls for projects as well as defining and organizing requirements in terms of research resources, equipment and budget, and projecting the IHU’s platforms and future property development.
What are your ambitions and main projects for the IHU?
ADLD : We plan to dedicate part of the building to be constructed at the Lariboisière’s hospital (AP-HP) to the reConnect IHU, in direct contact with patients. The different hearing-related professions will be reunited within the Hearing Institute and at the Lariboisière’s hospital to welcome patients, patient associations, start-ups and the companies linked to hearing field. This network will eventually be extended to the whole of France, to meet the growing needs of individuals.
We wish to become the place of reference for the treatment of hearing and speech disorders. - Anne-Dominique Lodeho-Devauchelle
YN : Our aims go beyond the field of compensatory medicine for hearing impairment and move towards curative medicine. The objective of reConnect is to find sustainable and innovative solutions to restore patients' hearing and communication, thereby significantly improving their quality of life.
reConnect represents a unique opportunity to transform patient care in hearing and speech disorders in France. By bringing together the best experts and by adopting an innovative and structured approach, reConnect has the potential to change the life of millions of people.
For the first time in France, this new initiative gathers a multidisciplinary team of experts, determined to revolutionize the patient care. - Yann Nguyen
How would you define the IHU in one word?
YN : For me, the word “patient” is perfect for reConnect because the IHU places the patient at the center of its preoccupations. Research is only conceived in the service of the patient, with the goal of improving his or her quality of life and well-being. Every project, every innovation is made to result in tangible clinical solutions, bringing real benefits to patients.
CP : I would use the word “interdisciplinarity” because reConnect consists of 11 workpackages: 5 with scientific projects, going from cell culture to therapeutical trials and from the ear to the brain, and 6 with cross-disciplinary projects to ensure cohesion. These projects pave the way towards curative therapeutical solutions to our patients and to answer to 4 objectives:
- Bringing together the actors in hearing health
- Intensifying innovation and entrepreneurship
- Moving from compensatory medicine to restorative medicine
- Meeting the medical, social, educational requirements raised by hearing and speech disorders
Anne-Dominique Lodeho-Devauchelle, in parallel of her scientific academic career (doctoral and post-doctoral in cognitive neurosciences), progress for more than 10 years in research management. She is the deputy director of the Hearing Institute and of the IHU reConnect. | Yann Nguyen, ENT specialist at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, doctor-researcher and professor, is the clinical director of reConnect. He also co-manages the team “technologies and gene therapy for deafness” with Saaid Safieddine at the Hearing Institute, center of the Institut Pasteur. | Claire Paquet, neurologist, neuropathologist and professor at the Université Paris-Cité is the scientific director of reConnect. She also manages the Cognitive Neurology center at the Lariboisière-Fernand Widal hospitals, which works on new therapeutics and markers of memory disease. |
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