[How to organize medical research?].

The creation of University Hospital Centers (CHU) in 1958 paved the way for the modern era of medical research in France. A large number of initiatives have subsequently been implemented, one on top of the other, without proper integration within the existing infrastructure. This has resulted in an excessively complex organization of work undertaken in hospitals, universities and research agencies. Other countries have adopted different organizational models. A recent initiative in France is seeking to create a limited number of so-called University Hospital Institutes (IHU), within a more flexible system that should favor the development of research projects from the laboratory through to clinical applications. Nevertheless, IHUs will not integrate the different partners' specific missions of each parteners. In the Netherlands, University Medical Centers have been created within a single organization. Ten years later this set-up has proved to be highly successful and could serve as a model for future restructuring of French University Hospital Centers.