Chair in Prevention and Access to Healthcare

The health crisis has revealed weaknesses in our healthcare system and highlighted how social inequalities affect prevention and access to care. Université Côte d'Azur and SKEMA are collaborating to develop new models and reduce these disparities.

Through this chair, we are harnessing science and data to address a key challenge: Making access to healthcare and prevention a priority. By combining economic expertise, artificial intelligence, and medical science, we aim to equip decision-makers with practical tools to transform and sustainably strengthen our healthcare system.

Benjamin Montmartin, Chair Director and Professor of Econometrics and Data Science at SKEMA.

Mission & objectives of the Chair

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility and shortcomings of our healthcare system. It has also shown how pre-existing conditions (such as diabetes and obesity) and socio-economic factors (including poverty, population density, and unequal access to care) increase the risks of illness and death.

In response to these challenges, researchers in medicine, economics, and data science from Université Côte d’Azur (UniCA) and SKEMA have defined two missions to help reduce social and regional health inequalities:

Improve access to healthcare and territorial cohesion by analysing the balance between local healthcare supply and demand, and by examining the socio-economic factors that lead to non-utilisation of healthcare services.
Enhance prevention by studying the determinants of health, with a focus on the relationship between the internal exposome (individual factors) and the external exposome (socio-economic and environmental factors).

The Prevention and Access to Healthcare Chair unites experts from the Faculty of Medicine, the ELMI University Research School, and SKEMA, an associate member of Université Côte d’Azur. The Chair includes recognised specialists in medicine (immunology, gynaecology, intensive care) and the social sciences, such as Jean Dellamonica, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine; Barbara Seitz-Polski, Professor of Immunology and Nephrology; Pierre-Alexis Gauci, gynaecologist; and Catherine Laffineur, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Université Côte d’Azur.

A partnership with UniCA

Through this partnership, Université Côte d’Azur and SKEMA Business School reaffirm their commitment to advancing public health innovation for the benefit of citizens and decision-makers.

Université Côte d’Azur is one of nine French universities awarded the “IdEx” label in recognition of their research intensity and international influence. Organised around innovative University Research Schools, it bases its educational and innovation missions on scientific excellence. Deeply rooted in the Côte d’Azur region, it is a key player in its development. As a founding member of the Ulysseus European University Alliance, home to the Interdisciplinary Institute for Artificial Intelligence (3IA Côte d’Azur), and a partner of major national research organisations, Université Côte d’Azur aims to be among the top European universities and to strengthen its international standing.