Kevin Yauy: “Successfully communicating with both worlds”
On February 13, Kevin Yauy, a geneticist and artificial intelligence specialist at Montpellier University Hospital and the University of Montpellier, won a NextGen Leaders in Health award for his DocSimulator training program. This award recognizes ten talented individuals who are working to shape the future of our healthcare system. We set up our camera on the steps of the Faculty of Medicine to talk about his career, which is as committed to patients with rare diseases as it is to his health students. Let's meet him!
Name?
Kevin Yauy.
Position?
I am a geneticist, doctor of artificial intelligence, and head of the biogenerative health laboratory at Montpellier University Hospital in Erios. I help people use artificial intelligence to resolve diagnostic dead ends, especially for those with rare diseases, which is my core business as a geneticist.
NextGen winner?
It's an award from French Care and Le Figaro that highlights ten French personalities who are working to improve our healthcare system. It recognizes the career of a physician-researcher with an early dual background in medicine and science. Above all, for me, it represents a recognition of our wonderful ecosystem in Montpellier, with the university hospital, the university, and the metropolitan area.
DocSimulator?
It is an online platform that allows students to practice with virtual patients generated using generative artificial intelligence. Today, we need to train more and more medical students, train them better, while maintaining the same number of teachers. To achieve this, we approached the University of Montpellier, which granted us funding as part of the I-Site program and the Montpellier Innovation Booster (BIM). This program enabled us to build, together with the University Hospital, the University, and in partnership with the company Compute I/O, a platform that was launched in 2022.
Today, the platform has been validated by two randomized clinical studies that have demonstrated its ability to train our students to improve their clinical skills, as well as the AI's ability to accurately assess a student in the same way a teacher would.
SeqOnes Genomics?
I wrote a CIFRE science thesis in collaboration with the 3IA institute in Grenoble and SeqOnes Genomics, which is our Montpellier gem. I had the opportunity to learn about machine learning and AI, but also to learn everything about the business world. This was a real added value for me because, thanks to this experience, I understood that to make a difference, we need a true public-private partnership. This experience enabled me to successfully communicate with both worlds.
Telomere or motherboard?
Why choose when you can have both? AI will help us as humans to become better humans, improving patient care, particularly for patients with rare diseases.
Science Ac or Star Ac?
Science Ac rather than Star Ac! (laughs) Science Ac was a program that gave us, as high school students, the opportunity to visit research laboratories and discover the world of research (Les motivés de la Science Ac’, Le Monde, 2007). We learned to pitch in English in front of a group of much more experienced researchers. And then I learned to break down my self-censorship. I grew up in an environment where I didn't necessarily have any role models, people who had succeeded in higher education or prestigious schools, and this program allowed me to encounter that world and realize that it was possible.
Dr. Yauy, Mister…?
Probably Mr. Musician. Mr. Guitarist. We were talking about Star'Ac just before, and actually, it's not that far off. I sometimes play the guitar and make electronic music. I think that art and creativity can be found in research, but they can also be found in other forms of creation, particularly music.