On 27 January 2011, Mr Claude Birraux, a deputy and President of the OPECST (Parliamentary Office for Scientific and Technological Assessment), organised a public hearing on technological breakthroughs in medicine, the idea for which had been suggested to the Opecst by Professor Jean-Michel Dubernard, a member of the board of the High Health Authority (HAS). This public hearing set out to analyse, through examples concerning cell therapies, medical acts and medical devices, the conditions for the success of some of these technological breakthroughs, but also the failures that have hindered the development of some others.