Christophe Humbert, PhD

LinkedIn

My work focuses on innovation in the healthcare field, and more specifically in gerontology (homecare, nusing homes).
Focusing mainly on the sociology of ageing, health and innovation, my approach consists in questioning what a digital, organizational and/or social innovation process “moves” in its wake on the scale of a territory (a département in the context of my thesis), or of an organization (e.g. a given nursing home), and what it brings to light. In this way, I interrogate several polysemous concepts, questioning the way in which innovation acts as an analyzer of what already exists and a catalyst for transformation: autonomy, social ties, quality of care, etc.
For example, while the field of gerontological action has been portrayed in the scientific literature as negating the decision-making autonomy of the elderly, I have proposed a typology of “forms of autonomy”, brought into play by the deployment of an information system for local gerontological coordination in a French département. As part of the INNOVEHPAD project, which examines digital uses for the social bond between nursing home residents during a pandemic (COVID-19), I question the way in which the social ties are transformed, becoming the object of complex mediations, networking humans and digital objects.