Following approval from the centre’s board of directors, the board of the Unicancer Federation and upon nomination by the French minister for health and protection, Professor Roman Rouzier took office, on 1 July 2023, as chief executive officer of the François Baclesse Comprehensive Cancer Centre. He succeeds Prof. Marc-André Mahé, for a 5-year term of office.
An internationally renowned expert serving tomorrow’s cancer care
Professor Rouzier, an internationally renowned expert serving tomorrow’s cancer care, started his career as a gynaecological surgeon in Paris (at the CHI hospital in Créteil). He then spent two years in the United States at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, the world’s leading cancer hospital[1]. Specialised in breast and gynaecological cancers, he was appointed university professor and hospital practitioner in 2008, at the Tenon hospital in Paris. In 2015, he became delegate director of the Institut Curie – Saint-Cloud, where he coordinated the establishment’s medical, scientific and architectural project, over and above the site’s general management. Concurrent to his professional activity, he studied management and graduated as valedictorian of an ‘executive master’ at the X Ecole Polytechnique in 2018. The author of 440 scientific publications, ranking in 4th place among France’s expert gynaecological surgeons by the magazine Le Point in May 2023, Prof. Rouzier is an internationally acknowledged expert.
A vision for Baclesse’s up to 2030
Behind an ambitious strategic plan, Prof. Rouzier intends to amplify the centre’s drive towards excellence and innovation, via its exclusive threefold public mission: healthcare, research and teaching. From optimising care paths to developing scientific research, via renewed management methods and reinforced territorial collaboration, the plan includes a multitude of prospects to advance the fight against cancer and to improve cancer care. Following the dynamic impetus engaged as scientific director and head of the department of surgery, Prof. Rouzier aims to promote the establishment’s many qualities: its volume of activity, its highly qualified staff, the excellence of dispensed care and its major role in the region’s cancer care offer. From a strategic viewpoint, Roman Rouzier proposes a vision based on the 5 Ps of medicine (Personalised, Preventive, Predictive, Participative and based on Proof). He globally approaches care paths and hopes to place Baclesse at the heart of territorial cooperation, alongside all other stakeholders in Lower Normandy’s oncological ecosystem: the Caen University Hospital, general hospitals and community practitioners. This momentum also plans to rely on ‘C3’* synergy (*association between Baclesse, the Henri Becquerel cancer centre in Rouen and the Oscar Lambret cancer centre in Lille).
A 6-POINT STRATEGIC PLAN:
His demanding and innovative strategic project will be deployed over 6 priorities:
- To ensure that each and every patient benefits from excellent, personalised and highly reliable care, from prevention to post-cancer;
- To develop clinical and translational research, together with medical training through a reinforced university foothold;
- To reinforce the centre’s territorial position via an innovative medical plan involving patients and all healthcare professionals;
- To develop governance in an aim to spur collective and efficient impetus, propitious to attractive careers within the centre;
- To consolidate the establishment’s financial situation;
- To remain faithful to the centre’s values (humanism, excellence, innovation and solidarity) and those of the Unicancer group.
‘I am taking on this new position with great humility and determination. Many collective challenges await us. Territorial cooperation, care quality and safety, excellence in research, participative management and rigorous financial control will form the basis of our shared action to serve our patients,’ Prof. Rouzier announced to the centre’s staff, reunited on Monday 3 July, to launch this ambitious strategy.
Prof. Jean-Yves Blay, President of Unicancer, believes, ‘Thanks to his experience and great energy, Prof. Rouzier will contribute to securing excellence at the François Baclesse Comprehensive Cancer Centre, by encouraging federative momentum and by continuing action initiated as scientific director. His unyielding commitment towards patients and cancer research are also at the heart of the Unicancer group’s strategic orientation.’
