We use cookies that are necessary to make our site work as well as analytics cookie and third-party cookies to monitor our traffic and to personalise content and ads.
Please click “Cookies Settings” for details on how to withdraw your consent and how to block cookies. For more detailed information about the cookies we use and of who we work this see our cookies notice
Necessary cookies:
Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website and cannot be switched off in our systems. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will then not work. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
Optional cookies:
Statistic cookies help website owners to understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information
Marketing cookies are used to track visitors across websites. The intention is to display ads that are relevant and engaging for the individual user and thereby more valuable for publishers and third party advertisers. We work with third parties and make use of third party cookies to make advertising messaging more relevant to you both on and off this website.
AI and health: the healthcare system in the age of digital transformation – an encounter with Solène Vo Quang
Article published on « Voix d’entrepreneurs » in partnership with Le Figaro on 9 October 2025
How can the medicine and technological innovation be brought into dialogue? As artificial intelligence is revolutionising every aspect of healthcare – from diagnostics to prevention – how do we separate genuine breakthroughs from passing trends? More importantly, how can innovation make healthcare more efficient, more preventative and more accessible? In this conversation, Solène Vo Quang, surgeon and founder of the Hack Your Care platform, joins Manoel de Ipanema, Private Banker at Lombard Odier, to explore the profound changes that are reshaping the healthcare system
Key takeaways:
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is enabling a new era of predictive medicine, detecting subtle signals early and allowing timely interventions that cut hospitalisation and structural costs
Connected devices, personalised treatments and presymptomatic diagnostics are transforming medical practice, empowering patients and enhancing outcomes
With the global AI healthcare market to reach nearly USD 190 billion by 2030, this evolution is set to deliver measurable and sustained impact across the healthcare ecosystem.
As a surgeon by training, when did you feel the need to set up your business, and what motivated your decision?
Solène Vo Quang: It was during my surgical residency that I began collaborating with businesses, particularly those working in the field of artificial intelligence. I had the opportunity to work on the annotation of medical images, which enabled me to see how AI applied to healthcare actually works.
Sign up for our newsletter
For example, I contributed to projects involving automated diagnosis based on dental panoramic radiographs and post-treatment follow-up. Over time, I realised just how difficult it was for healthcare professionals and businesses to understand each other. They operate in two worlds that coexist without really communicating with each other, even though it would be in their best interests to collaborate. It was from this observation that the idea of setting up my own business gradually emerged – one designed to bridge the gap between the medical universe and the technology ecosystem.
How exactly does Hack Your Care work, and what kinds of collaboration have you already established?
Solène Vo Quang: I have developed a platform that facilitates collaboration between businesses and healthcare professionals. One concrete example is the work we are currently undertaking with Dassault Systèmes. A year ago they launched a project on digital twins and needed to consult with various medical professionals in focus groups. Hack Your Care makes it possible to build bridges between the medical world and innovative businesses at the right time, in the right place and with the right people.
We now have a community of more than 6,000 healthcare professionals across France and Germany, ready to contribute to projects aimed at transforming the healthcare system. Our role is to identify the right professionals, prepare them for collaboration, and above all manage the entire relationship from the legal framework to remuneration and contracts
We now have a community of more than 6,000 healthcare professionals across France and Germany1, ready to contribute to projects aimed at transforming the healthcare system. Our role is to identify the right professionals, prepare them for collaboration, and above all manage the entire relationship from the legal framework to remuneration and contracts. For businesses, this saves time and improves quality: they can test, adjust and iterate more quickly, with concrete feedback from the field.
When you look at how the sector is developing, what gives you confidence in the future of healthcare enhanced by technology and AI?
Manoel de Ipanema: What gives me confidence is the emergence of a real paradigm shift. AI is no longer content to supporting care; it is transforming its foundations. It allows earlier diagnosis in radiology, for example, and promotes increased personalisation of treatments. But above all it is facilitating a new way of thinking: moving from a curative approach typical of Western medicine, where people seek treatment when they fall ill, towards a preventative approach similar to Chinese medical philosophy where people seek advice to stay healthy.
Thanks to AI and its capacity to detect faint indicators, this evolution from a curative to a preventative approach could lead to a significant reduction in structural costs
Thanks to AI and its capacity to detect faint indicators, this evolution from a curative to a preventative approach could lead to a significant reduction in structural costs. Going beyond technical performance, however, what I consider essential is the shift in approach: moving from a healthcare system designed to repair, where we treat a disease once it has been diagnosed, to one that is designed to prevent.
What, in your opinion, are the most fundamental innovations in the healthcare sector today?
Manoel de Ipanema: The most transformative advances are those emerging in prevention, presymptomatic diagnosis and patient empowerment. Connected medical devices, for example, allow healthcare professionals to detect subtle changes derived from glucose levels, heart rate or sleep patterns and take action before symptoms appear.
related content.
rethink sustainabilityfrance
rethink sustainabilityfranceentrepreneurssustainable business
AI is already capable of improving early detection and diagnostic reliability for certain diseases such as Parkinson's2. There has also been a rise in personalised medicine based on cross-analysis of genomic and behavioural data. And thanks to these technologies, home monitoring has become reliable, significantly easing the pressure on hospital systems.
The notion of "good practice" in AI healthcare often comes up in debates. What does this actually encompass?
Solène Vo Quang: There are now a whole host of technological tools in the healthcare sector. But however powerful a tool is, it is of no use unless it is associated with a specific application. The real question is what is it for? Does it save lives? Does it improve the care pathway? Does it reduce the workload for carers? Development must be guided by the answers to these questions. Without an application, these tools will not survive.
Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why many businesses come to us: they are looking for relevant use cases to adapt or reorientate their technology. I am thinking of Vocads, for example, a French start-up that specialises in AI-based voice agents. Although their solution was not initially intended for the healthcare sector, its founders approached us to apply it to post-operative follow-up for patients in my area of speciality. This kind of approach, geared to real clinical need, is the key to the useful and lasting use of AI in the healthcare sector.
We are not content with evaluating a solution's technological potential or novelty effect… We invest in things that restructure the economy in depth, with scientific rigour, a long-term vision and a positive net impact on society and the environment
How can we distinguish between a genuinely useful technological innovation in the healthcare sector and a simple fad? What criteria allow us to identify the solutions that will have a lasting impact?
Manoel de Ipanema: For an innovation to capture our attention, it must first and foremost profoundly transform one of the five key systems we have identified: energy, industry, consumption, healthcare, supported across the board by technology through data and artificial intelligence. It must also have a solid, validated scientific basis and be supported by a viable, scalable economic model.
The impact makes all the difference. We are not content with evaluating a solution's technological potential or novelty effect. We want to measure what it really changes. Does it reduce the number of avoidable hospital admissions? Does it facilitate early diagnosis? Does it improve access to care? These are the concrete indicators that count. Finally, it is quite easy to distinguish a useful innovation from a technological gadget. You just need to ask one question. Does this solution respond to a systemic need, and does it give rise to a structural change? It is also a question of how it aligns with our investment philosophy at Lombard Odier. We invest in things that restructure the economy in depth, with scientific rigour, a long-term vision and a positive net impact on society and the environment.
In your view, what are the major problems facing the French healthcare system today?
Solène Vo Quang: There are currently three major problems undermining our healthcare system. The first is the dramatic shortage of doctors and carers. We are still training too few practitioners, while at the same time the need is rising exponentially. It is a ticking time bomb. The second challenge is the growing devaluation of medical profession. How can we hope to retain talented individuals when our skills are underpaid and under-recognised? The massive drain of doctors leaving to work abroad is proof of this. Finally, our training remains stuck in a different century. We are not preparing future doctors to manage projects, innovate and work on a cross-disciplinary basis. Until this model is recast, we will remain prisoners of a system that is running out of steam.
As an investor, how do you assess the potential of this sector?
Manoel de Ipanema: The healthcare sector fully reflects our investment approach here at Lombard Odier: identifying robust economic models that are backed by scientific research, capable of being developed at scale and generate a measurable impact. Augmented health – the intersection of medicine, data and technology – is thus part of the dynamics of an economy aligned with the net-zero objective. The outlook is significant, with the global market for AI in healthcare expected to reach almost USD 190 billion by 20303, paving the way for innovations that improve both health outcomes and system efficiency.
This is a marketing communication issued by Bank Lombard Odier & Co Ltd (hereinafter “Lombard Odier”).
It is not intended for distribution, publication, or use in any jurisdiction where such distribution, publication, or use would be unlawful, nor is it aimed at any person or entity to whom it would be unlawful to address such a marketing communication.
share.