Jean Rosa belongs to the post-war generation that transformed French medicine from a state of powerless humanism — all the more "humane" because it was so often helpless — to one of scientific and technical efficiency. Unfortunately, in the process, medicine seems to have lost its human face. In this book, Rosa shows how he contributed to this medical revolution: on the one hand, through the "Debré Reform", which instituted teaching hospitals, thus firmly linking medical research with therapeutic and surgical treatment, and, on the other hand, by associating medicine with molecular biology. Rosa is an internationally renowned specialist in haemoglobin-related pathologies, which are the cause of numerous types of anaemia, and his laboratory at Hôpital Henri Mondor, in the Paris suburb of Créteil, has become an international research centre in haematology. He was one of the pioneers in the application of techniques of molecular biology to medical research. As a member of a group of scientists who were close to the French Socialist Party, Rosa played an active role as a scientific adviser during François Mitterrand’s first term of office. He recounts here the meeting between scientists and politicians — a meeting fraught with hope and with misunderstandings.

Jean Rosa is Emeritus Professor in the medical school of the University of Paris-XII and a member of the French Academy of Science.