Health research & consulting firm
From user expertise to health innovation
Our value proposition
ARGO Santé transforms the experiences of patients, carers and professionals into robust knowledge, actionable recommendations and decision-support tools. The firm supports patient organisations, public bodies, healthcare providers and life-sciences companies in understanding care and life pathways and unmet needs, and in evaluating healthcare services, organisations and innovations. Our work contributes in particular to:
- Improving the continuity and coordination of care and life pathways
- Facilitating access to new products, therapies and medical devices
- Evaluating the impact and success factors of innovative healthcare services and organisations
Our approach is based on transforming individual experiences into collective expertise, then integrating this expertise into rigorous methods for research, evaluation and socio-medico-economic analysis.
Specialist expertise in health and disability
ARGO Santé specialises in collecting, structuring and interpreting the experiential knowledge of people living with illness, disability or loss of autonomy, as well as the experience of healthcare, social care and scientific professionals. The firm combines human and social science methods with quantitative analysis, including health economics, sociology, psychology, data management, statistics and econometrics.
Services for life-sciences companies
Biotechnology companies, pharmaceutical companies and digital health providers
Strengthen your evidence package from proof of concept through post-marketing with studies of patient pathways, quality of life and burden, and disseminate the findings through scientific publications and conferences.
Strategic advice on the research needed to support the value of a new therapy:
- Quality-of-life studies
- PROM and PREM studies, data management and statistical analysis
- Qualitative assessment of disease burden and patients’ unmet needs
- Sociological interviews, focus groups, expert consultations and other qualitative methods
Building partnerships with patient organisations and clinical experts:
- Facilitation of patient advisory boards
- Early involvement of patient organisations and experts in study design
Support for the dissemination of patient-centred research:
- Scientific publications
- Posters and presentations at medical and scientific conferences
Support for submissions to health technology assessment bodies:
- Support with dossier preparation
- Development of evidence-based arguments using new data
- Training on medico-economic concepts, the healthcare system and clinical research
Through our partnerships in Europe and the United States, we can support international patient studies.
Our recent projects
The user-centred projects commissioned by our clients — patient organisations, life-sciences companies, national and regional health agencies, hospital federations and services, research centres and consulting firms — have included:
- Modelling the health and life pathways of people living with a life-threatening genetic condition, measuring quality of life and assessing burden in order to support faster access to a new therapy
- Developing recommendations to improve diagnosis, care and support for people with profound and multiple disabilities and their carers, evaluating innovative healthcare services and organisations, and proposing new models of care
- Conducting a benchmark study on accommodation for people with motor disabilities and costing measures designed to support them
- Designing a guidance tool to help people navigate their life pathway with a rare disease
- Training patient organisations to identify breakdowns in care, health and life pathways and to turn patient-experience data into robust evidence for advocacy
An independent, committed and experienced consulting firm
ARGO Santé is an independent consulting firm founded and led by Marieke Podevin. Depending on the nature of each assignment, the firm works with carefully selected partners who bring complementary expertise and in-depth knowledge of the health sector. We believe that changes to the healthcare system should begin with the needs, experiences and expectations of people living with illness, disability or loss of autonomy, as well as those of the professionals who support them. ARGO Santé therefore places the expertise of the people concerned at the heart of its work, in order to document unmet needs, inform decision-making and contribute to more appropriate care and support. This committed, rigorous and deeply user-centred approach is part of the firm’s DNA.
Marieke Podevin, Founder
Marieke Podevin holds a PhD in macroeconometrics. She joined the French Ministry of Health in 2004, first at DREES and then at HCAAM, two experiences that shaped her understanding of the healthcare system and its challenges. Having founded and chaired SOS DESMOIDE, a patient organisation dedicated to a rare disease, she decided to apply both her lived experience and her expertise as an economist within a major patient organisation. In 2008, she joined AFM-Téléthon, where she worked on patients’ needs and expectations and on medico-economic issues, including the price and cost of innovative therapies and orphan medicines. She founded ARGO Santé in 2014 around the guiding principle she has pursued for more than 20 years: harnessing patient expertise to help transform the healthcare system. Find out more
