France’s physicians are foundational to modern medicine. René Laennec invented the stethoscope in 1816. Jean-Martin Charcot joined Paris’s Salpêtrière Hospital in 1862 and founded modern neurology, documenting multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s Disease. Louis Pasteur developed pasteurisation in 1864. Alexis Carrel trained with a seamstress to improve his surgical sewing, advancing vascular surgery and winning the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1912.

Country’s healthcare system in a nutshell

France’s universal coverage operates under a statutory health insurance (SHI) model. SHI’s wide coverage includes hospital care, physician services, long-term care, and prescription drugs. Patients are responsible for certain out-of-pocket expenses, such as coinsurance, copayments, and additional charges if fees exceed the covered amounts.

SHI funding is primarily from payroll taxes paid by both employers and employees, along with a national income tax and levies on specific industries and products. To offset out-of-pocket costs, 95% of French citizens also hold voluntary complementary private health insurance (VHI). It helps cover expenses for services like dental, hearing, and vision care.

Governance is shared between SHI funds and the national government. Recent reforms delegated some authority to regional health agencies. Central government retains considerable control over the system's overall management (World Health Organization, 2024).

99.9% of the population in France is covered: those who are members of health insurance schemes and those who have free access to state-provided healthcare services (Our World in Data, n.p.)

Public vs private

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The national PHR

History

The "Ma Santé 2022" programme of the French Minister of Solidarity and Health set out a plan in 2019. Point 15 aimed to establish a Digital Health Space to enable citizens to choose and access digital health services securely and easily within the healthcare system. Action 16 focused on providing healthcare professionals with a secure platform for delivering clinical telemedicine services. And Action 8 mandated that all health professionals' software interoperate with the Digital Health Space by July 2023 (Simon and Moulin, 2022).

"Mon Espace Santé” (My Health Space) was the new name in a 2021 decree. The decree specified content and functionality (Simon and Moulin, 2022). The launch on January 1st 2022 represented a milestone in the digitisation of healthcare services in France. The platform is available for all individuals under the umbrella of Health Insurance, with provisions for opt-outs (Simon and Moulin, 2022).

Mon Espace Santé is a partnership between the French government; a consortium led by Atos; and the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM). Atos was awarded the project in November 2020, and the scope of their work included design, development, hosting, operation, and maintenance, all within a tight 13-month timeframe.

The consortium led by Atos comprises three notable French entities: Maincare Solutions, expert in Identity Management and health directories; Gravitee, an API platform specialist, which contributes to the integration of diverse systems and functionalities; and Beezim, responsible for the platform’s communication features (Atos International, 2022).

Features

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Patients using Mon Espace Santé can view and add to their health records. The platform's core feature, Mon histoire de santé (My Health History), tracks all patient interactions with the healthcare system, including visits to GPs, specialists, and pharmacies.

Other key sections of the record include (Mon Espace Santé, n.p.):

Medical conditions: A summary of diagnoses.
Treatments and medications: Details of current and past treatments.
Hospitalisation and disabilities: Information on inpatient stays and any disabilities.
Risk factors: Documentation of allergies, family medical history, and lifestyle factors.
Vaccinations: Records of immunisations.
Health measures: Metrics like weight, height, BMI, heart rate, and blood pressure.
Documents: A section where both healthcare professionals and patients can upload important documents like vaccination certificates. Test results are also stored here, although patients must download the test report itself, as it is not displayed directly within the record.

Additionally, a secure messaging feature allows patients and healthcare professionals to communicate. Only the professional can start communication.

Patients can also share a summary of their profile with selected healthcare professionals. For families, Mon Espace Santé allows parents to activate profiles for their children, automatically linking these to the parent's records.

The privacy control feature lets a patient review all reports and decide which healthcare providers can access their information.

Challenges and areas for improvement

Challenges include:

A

utomatic data integration from hospitals varies widely as the platform is still in its early stages.
Data are not yet fully structured or coded for optimal use.
Daily use is not widespread

,

as the adoption statistics indicate.
Seeing or manage appointments directly is not included in the platform.

Published outcomes - statistics

65.7 million policyholders has adopted Mon Espace Santé according the latest report from the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM),

Only 7.9 million users (11.5%) are actively engaging with the platform.

According to an update from L'Express, as of 21 March 2024, Mon Espace Santé has 11 million active patient users, while 45,000 general practitioners are also utilising the platform.