Etienne THERESE
Présentation
Researcher (Medical IT Audit and Consulting)
PhD in Life and Health Sciences, Dissertation: “The Physician, the Expert, and the Event”, Faculty of Medecine Necker–Enfants Malades, Paris, 2001. PhD in Economic and Social Sciences, Dissertation: “The Socio-Informatics Paradigm, Ethics, and Occupational Medicine”, ICP, 2010. Étienne Thérèse is a researcher in medical informatics and social sciences, whose work lies at the intersection of medical information systems, epistemology, and the sociology of health. He holds a Master’s degree in Health Informatics Systems Engineering, a Master’s degree in Philosophy – Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, a Master’s degree in Geography, Planning and Urban Studies – Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle University, a Master’s degree in Social Sciences of Labour– Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, a Master’s degree in Political Science– Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University ,a PhD in health sciences (Faculty of Medicine Necker–Enfants Malades) and a PhD in Economic and Social Sciences - Institut Catholique de Paris, with research focusing on the epistemic and normative effects of information technologies in medicine and transport infrastructure network.
His actual work is situated within a socio-informatics paradigm, which conceptualizes health information systems not as neutral technical tools but as socio-technical dispositifs that actively shape medical knowledge, clinical reasoning, and professional responsibility. A central contribution of his research concerns the coupling of clinical data and medical knowledge within computerized patient records and clinical decision support systems, and the ways this coupling transforms regimes of evidence, traceability, and proof in medical practice.
Drawing on epistemology, philosophy of science, and critical medical informatics, Thérèse analyzes how formalization processes—classification systems, standards, algorithms, and decision rules—introduce forms of technical normativity that reconfigure both clinical judgment and organizational decision-making. His approach explicitly engages with Foucauldian analyses of knowledge and power, as well as with Bruno Bachimont’s work on the normativity of formal systems and knowledge representation.
A significant part of his empirical research has been conducted in the field of occupational medicine, where he examines how information systems mediate the relationship between clinical events, expert assessment, institutional constraints, and legal accountability. This work highlights how digital infrastructures participate in redefining expertise, risk recognition, and responsibility in contemporary healthcare systems.
Overall, Étienne Thérèse’s research contributes to a critical understanding of medical informatics as an epistemic infrastructure, emphasizing the political, ethical, and organizational implications of data-driven medicine.