Healthcare Deserts: Université Côte d’Azur and SKEMA Business School Launch a First-of-Its-Kind National Observatory on Access to Healthcare
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on the June 17, 2026
As the issue of medical deserts has emerged as a major challenge for territorial cohesion and public health, the launch of this observatory on access to healthcare makes it possible, for the first time in France, to map in detail the population’s access to health services, from the national level down to the neighborhood level.
Detailed and Dynamic Mapping of Regions
Freely accessible, the observatory aggregates data from authoritative public sources (Health Insurance, INSEE, government databases) to provide a detailed overview of healthcare provision across the entire country. Its granularity allows for analysis at various levels: national, regional, departmental, municipal, and even sub-municipal.
The tool covers a broad spectrum of healthcare provision, including:- private healthcare professionals,
- hospital services (including emergency rooms and psychiatry),
- essential infrastructure such as pharmacies and nursing homes (EHPADs).
It also tracks changes in these indicators over a period of up to fifteen years, providing a dynamic view of regional transformations.
A decision-support tool for public and private stakeholders
Designed as a true management tool, the observatory enables decision-makers to compare regions with one another and precisely identify areas under strain. For example, a local government can visualize which medical specialties are available or lacking at the neighborhood level, while regional health agencies will have objective support to guide their healthcare planning policies.
Both public and private operators can also use this data to prioritize the establishment of new healthcare facilities where needs are most critical.
“The debate on medical deserts often suffers from a lack of precise indicators that are comparable over time and cover a broad spectrum of healthcare provision. Our goal is to provide elected officials, healthcare professionals, and stakeholders in the healthcare system with a scientific tool that makes it possible to objectively assess the actual needs of different regions and evaluate the effectiveness of the policies implemented. We can only sustainably improve access to care if we are able to measure it with precision, taking into account all stakeholders in the system,” explains Benjamin Montmartin, professor of econometrics and data science at SKEMA Business School and director of the Chair in Prevention and Access to Care.
Impact-Driven Research Addressing Major Societal Challenges
Led by the “Prevention and Access to Healthcare” Chair—co-founded by Université Côte d’Azur and SKEMA Business School and designated an Initiative of Excellence—this observatory fully embodies the University’s ambition to put research at the service of society.
“This observatory embodies our commitment to producing useful research that can be directly applied by public stakeholders. By combining scientific excellence, methodological innovation, and open data, we offer a practical tool to inform decision-making and help reduce inequalities in access to healthcare across regions,” emphasizes Sylvain Antoniotti, vice president of the Université Côte d’Azur Initiative of Excellence.
Beyond the generation of knowledge, this initiative marks a significant shift in the approach to medical deserts: from a focus on medical demographics to a regional management strategy based on objective, comparable data that is accessible to all.
