Maëlisse is a PhD student at MICALIS, INRAe. To gain a better understanding of the reality of sepsis in a hospital setting, she swapped her researcher’s lab coat for a clinical one for a week of shadowing in the Intensive Care Unit at Raymond-Poincaré Hospital in Garches.
'A valuable experience'
My shadowing experience in the intensive care unit at Raymond-Poincaré Hospital was particularly rewarding. During this week, I had the opportunity to observe a wide range of activities within the ICU, as well as in the departments that work closely with it.
This experience gave me a better understanding of how the ICU operates, while also allowing me to meet and interact with the different healthcare professionals working there.
In particular, I had the opportunity to discover the different steps involved in enrolling a septic patient in a clinical study, observe interactions between healthcare professionals and patients, and follow the journey of a biological sample from collection from the patient through to its analysis in the laboratory. I also had the opportunity to learn more about how the hospital pharmacy operates and its close collaboration with the ICU.
This experience allowed me to take a step back and reflect on my PhD research topic, while gaining a better understanding of the reality of sepsis in the clinical setting. It gave me the opportunity to put the knowledge and data from the scientific literature into perspective with their practical application in patient care.
This shadowing experience was particularly valuable because it was tailored to our objectives and to the topics we wanted to explore further in connection with our PhD research. It therefore provided a valuable opportunity to gain a better understanding of clinical practice and to build a bridge between research and patient care.
I would like to thank l'IHU SEPSIS and M. Annane, as well as the entire ICU team, for their warm welcome and for making this week such a rewarding experience.
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Photo caption: Maëlisse visits Prof. Martin Rottman’s innovative biomarker platform.
About the Shadowing Placements
The IHU SEPSIS offers its non-clinical researchers the opportunity to take part in shadowing experiences in the Intensive Care Unit. During these placements, they can gain first-hand insight into:
- A hospital care setting: the overall organization and day-to-day operations of a hospital and its different departments;
- The management of a patient with sepsis: following a patient’s journey from admission to the ICU through to discharge or transfer;
- The enrollment of a patient in a clinical study: understanding eligibility criteria, the informed consent process, medication management, and more.
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On Thursday, September 24, 2026, the “Bridge the Gap” event, organized by Claire Richards and Roland Cahen, brought together 24 biologists, physicians, researchers, professors, and designers to discuss rapid Point-of-Care diagnosis of sepsis.
Maëlisse is a PhD student at MICALIS, INRAe. To gain a better understanding of the reality of sepsis in a hospital setting, she swapped her researcher’s lab coat for a clinical one for a week of shadowing in the Intensive Care Unit at Raymond-Poincaré Hospital in Garches.