From objects to life

The health turn

In 2020, in the midst of the health crisis, Bernard Charlès, then CEO of Dassault Systèmes, announced a bold strategic shift: expanding the group’s expertise to health and life sciences, moving “from objects to life.” The acquisition of Medidata Solutions a year earlier for $5.8 billion had already paved the way and proved particularly timely. A leader in cloud solutions for clinical trials, Medidata played a key role in the fight against Covid-19, managing 60 % of virus-related clinical trials worldwide.
 

From Boeing to the human body

At the heart of Dassault Systèmes’ new strategy is the virtual twin. In the 1990s, the company enabled Boeing to design its 777 entirely digitally. Today, it applies the same logic to the human body. “There was a before and after the Boeing 777; there will be a before and after the digital twin of the human body,” says Tarek Sherif, cofounder of Medidata and chairman of the Life Sciences and Healthcare board at Dassault Systèmes.

However, the challenge is huge and requires a holistic approach. Bringing together extremely diverse scientific and medical disciplines should make it possible to visualize, understand, test, and predict the effect of a drug or the outcome of an operation before even beginning a patient’s treatment.

The Living Heart project

Launched in 2014, the Living Heart project illustrates this ambition. Developed with the FDA, researchers, cardiologists, and industry partners, it offers a 3D model of the human heart with unprecedented precision. Customizable for each patient, it enables simulations of interventions and medical devices before any real operation takes place. In 2025, a new generation of the model, enhanced with AI, was introduced, thus paving the way for truly personalized medicine.

3DEXPERIENCE, the backbone of the ecosystem

Dassault Systèmes’ transformation relies on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which brings together the group’s solutions: Medidata for clinical trials, Biovia for molecular research, Simulia for simulation, Catia and SolidWorks for design, Delmia for manufacturing, and Netvibes for data analysis.

3DEXPERIENCE orchestrates the entire treatment development cycle, from fundamental research to production, through clinical trials and commercial deployment. It connects the various players in the healthcare ecosystem, breaking down traditional silos between laboratories, manufacturers, regulators, and practitioners. The goal: to improve patients’ experience and place them at the center of the system, while integrating crucial issues of trust, ethics, and data protection.

Skills and partnerships

This strategic shift required internal transformation: more than 4,000 employees now work in health-related roles. Dassault Systèmes has hired physicians, biologists, data scientists, and specialized lawyers, while forming strategic partnerships. In 2025, the company invested in Click Therapeutics, a digital therapeutics specialist, and launched a database for psychiatric research with the FondaMental Foundation.

Toward precision medicine

Dassault Systèmes’ vision converges toward precision medicine: the era of standardized treatments is giving way to personalized approaches tailored to each patient’s genetic, physiological, and environmental profile. The virtual twin becomes a central tool, and the combined power of virtual worlds and real-world data enables an integrated understanding of the human body, from DNA to the entire organism.

Five years after Dassault Systèmes announced its pivot to health, the foundations are solid. Medidata is fully playing its role, Living Heart is advancing, and partnerships are expanding. Nevertheless, modeling the complexity of life remains a considerable scientific and technological challenge, and the adoption of new tools by caregivers and authorities will still take time.