Well, to begin with, I had the pleasure to interview one of the veterans of this school and one of the pillars of the Health Technology Information department, Mister Emmanuel Promayon. He’s a computer science teacher in this department and throughout this interview, he will introduce you to the TIS department and its evolution over the years. But first who is M. Emmanuel Promayon you may ask?
By the way, I recommend you finish reading the article, there is a small interesting fact at the end. 😉
1) Who is M.Promayon?
Promayon is a computer science teacher in the TIS department but besides teaching in Polytech, he’s a researcher in a laboratory near the University Hospital of Grenoble. His research consists mainly of modelling behaviour on the body, also called biomechanical modelling, and developing software tools useful in the development of new products used in the clinical environment. His story with Polytech began in 1999, just a year after finishing his PhD, and he was recruited to work on the project of implementing a new department which became the Health Technology Department that we know today.
2) The origin of the TIS department…
The person behind the creation of the Health Technology Information was Pierre Baconnier and others were involved in this project such as Catherine Berrut, Pierre-Yves Gumery, Sylvie Charbonnier and Emmanuel Promayon, who all still teach in Polytech. The reason behind its creation was to take into account the development of the health industry, especially with medical instruments and devices, as health science really started to open to IT. Also, at the time, to have the same competences as the TIS graduates, you needed to have a computer science background and have worked with health professionals for many years so that they understand their needs and finding adequate tools to help them. In order to get the project started, they implemented a competency list so that they could track what they need from an engineer coming from this department and opted for a single option, which resulted to adding up two other options nowadays, in the final year before graduating. After all these implementations, they began recruiting in 2000. In the beginning, the industry didn’t have a specific type of need while the new engineers entered the market but things have changed today.
3) …till its success nowadays
Promayon was the director of the department 2 years ago, where he had a 5-year time span where he managed the TIS department and developed new ideas that could benefit the department. At the end he just thought that the position needed some fresh air. Today, he is really satisfied with the result and of what his colleagues and him achieved throughout the years. In fact, the department responded clearly to the need of the industry where the new graduates have a clear profile of being intermediates between the technology part and the health professionals. Furthermore, some companies didn’t know this kind of profile was needed which explains the fact that most of the new engineers get a job right after their course. Even though everything has been settled, new challenges are still yet to come…
4) His vision on the future
While the department is well established, he still thinks that huge challenges are still to come due to the constant evolution of technology and health and companies looking for new specific profiles so they always need to think ahead for what’s coming in the future. In addition to that, they need to have an idea of the tendency of the job market to change some implementations and adapt to the need of the industry with their new criteria. Despite these challenges, he’s very confident about its future, especially how it is well-organised in order to get all the inputs needed in the real world.
5) His advice for the future upcomers
Studying hard was one of his pieces of advice obviously but most of all to enjoy the student life as much as possible, especially with the diversity that the departments of this school has to offer. In fact, particularly in the TIS department, newcomers have widely different backgrounds so it’s a challenge for both sides, for the students and the teachers, to adapt and to understand despite the difference of levels within the class.
To finish this article, I want to thank M.Promayon for this opportunity and his interesting point of view that I wanted to share in this work and we wish him all the best in his future.
FUN FACT!
Mr Promayon has a very exquisite knowledge of English mainly because of his Irish wife and his two children, all bilingual, so they tend to speak mainly English. His children even correct him whenever he makes a mistake. LOL! |