The future “Drines”, the research, innovation and digital health direction, is taking shape. According to information revealed by the media Contexte and confirmed by Acteurs publics, Stéphanie Rist, Minister of Health, Families, Autonomy and People with Disabilities, has instructed the current four directors of the designated directions to merge to form this new entity.
Namely, Charles-Édouard Escurat, general director of the Agency for Innovation in Health, Julie Lagrave, deputy director of research and innovation at the Directorate General of Healthcare Provision, David Sainati, delegated to digital health, and whose former deputy, Hela Ghariani, has just been appointed head of the Health Data Hub. Finally, Cécile Lambert, general reporter of the “article 51” scheme: a scheme aimed at perpetuating experiments of innovative health organizations.
Mission “efficient State”
It was in December 2025 that Stéphanie Rist announced the restructuring of her ministry, “to move from a fragmented institutional landscape to integrated, more coherent and faster management”. The restructuring is part of the efficient State mission, launched by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu. “We will bring together all the dedicated forces for clinical research, innovation and digital health within a single direction,” the minister declared.
The goal is mainly, at this stage, to provide the ministry with a better capacity for anticipation and action on artificial intelligence and health data, issues now inevitable in the sector, and on which initiatives are multiplying. In particular, the appointment of Hela Ghariani to head the Health Data Hub has formally brought the issue of health data back under the ministry’s jurisdiction, after years of difficult installation for the GIP.
Installation in September
To successfully carry out their mission, the four future direction prefigurators have been invited to rely on the work of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (Igas). The Igas is currently working on a report prefiguring this future direction, and is expected to present its work in mid-May, as recently announced by Stéphanie Rist.
These works are expected to materialize with the proposal of a “macro-organigram” around the missions of the direction and a roadmap for its first twelve months of installation. Recruitment for the direction’s head should begin this summer, for an installation starting in September.
