Advances in medical science are constantly being made, but it is often difficult for patients to realise what these advances entail and to understand their applications.
The twelve lectures collected in this new volume in the series “L'Université de tous les savoirs” aim to inform us about some of these recent advances by addressing the following questions:
What is the procedure for putting new medication on the market? How is new medication tested? What are the policies for furthering pharmaceutical innovation? How are health care structures organised? What will the hospital of the future be like? What are biotechnologies? What has been the impact of the neurosciences on therapeutics? What advances have been made in genetic mapping? What benefits can patients hope to gain from it?
Gathered here are contributions by a geneticist, a surgeon, a psychiatrist, an emergency doctor, a neurologist and a philosopher. They examine the state of medical research today and address a question that concerns us all: What will medical care be like in the future?

Contributions by Yves Agid, Pierre Carli, Alain Carpentier, Patrick Couvreur, Claude Debru, Bernard Golse, Didier Houssin, Gérard Le Fur, Jacques Marescaux, Arnold Munnich, Luis Omnès and Olivier Saint-Jean.
Other books in the series include Qu'est-ce que la vie?, Qu'est-ce que l'humain?, Qu'est-ce que la société?, Qu'est-ce que l'Univers?, Qu'est-ce que les technologies?, Qu'est-ce que la culture?, Qu'est-ce que la vie psychique?, Le Renouvellement de l'observation dans les sciences, La Chine aujourd'hui, Egalité et inégalités, Qu'est-ce que la diversité de la vie?, Qu'est-ce que la globalisation?, Paris and La Guerre d'Algérie 1954-1962.