Since 23 June 2010, all eHealth actors and stakeholders have had at their disposal a portal entirely dedicated to ehealth in France - www.esante.gouv.fr.

'Esante.gouv.fr' was launched by the 'Agence des Systèmes d'Information Partagés de Santé' (in short, 'ASIP Santé'), the Health Ministry's operating arm in the field of ehealth. ASIP Santé is a public agency whose mission consists of defining a national technology framework for ehealth and of piloting exchange and health data-sharing projects in order to improve healthcare coordination and quality.

'Esante.gouv.fr' will be a virtual meeting place and a forum for all ehealth stakeholders (institutions, patients, health professionals, the industry, etc) of all levels (local and regional, national, international) to express their views, promote their projects and share experiences.

Available in both English and French, the portal aims to develop ehealth knowledge and to promote the delivery of healthcare services that such knowledge enables, to the benefit of French and international actors alike.

Seven editorial sections will allow portal users to read articles, post comments or download additional information documents. The seven sections are as follows: public policy; territories; services; telemedicine; personal medical record ('Dossier Médical Personnel' - DMP); interoperability; ethics.

ASIP Santé will moreover provide though the portal a set of concrete services such as frameworks, studies, a glossary, publications, key legal information and services relating to the Health Professional Card (Carte de Professionnel de Santé - CPS).

A priority of the French Government, ehealth development is seen as one of the levers for tackling economic, demographic and public health challenges. The ehealth development policy was initiated by the Minister for Health and Sports and it is now among the nine main themes comprised in the Ministry of Economics' proposal for new digital uses ('nouveaux usages numériques') in the framework of the Grand Loan (Grand emprunt) and 'Digital France 2010', the Plan for the development of the digital economy.

 

Further information: 

• Original press release - ASIP Santé (in French)
• 'esante.gouv.fr' (in English and French)
• Video presentation of 'esante.gouv.fr' (in French)
• ASIP Santé (in French)
• Related ePractice publication - Digital France 2010