How to use France’s new online digital health space

France has an online health space where you can see your medical history, including prescriptions, X-rays, and other documents.

The Mon espace santé (My health space) is hosted on an independent platform, separate from the Assurance Maladie website ameli.fr. It is at monespacesante.fr.

It is hoped the platform will encourage better dialogue between patients and the doctors treating them. 

Previously, health documents would have been kept by the patient and brought by them to appointments or stored on the (optional) Dossier Médical Partagé (DMP) digitised medical file in France, which is now obsolete.

Talking about the initiative as it was launched, the then Health Minister Olivier Véran said: “It will take time for everyone to get used to it and learn how to use it, but it will be a small, very positive revolution in healthcare.”

What information is stored?

People who had a DMP (around 10 million people) should have found the same content in their space as in the DMP. Those who did not have a DMP were not expected to see much in their space at first; only their vaccination and reimbursement history. Eventually, however, documents should have started to appear. These can include prescriptions, payments, reimbursements, test results, and X-rays.

You can also add and check on your allergies, conditions, or illnesses; current treatment plans, time spent in hospital, family history, and any ‘last wishes’ in the event of your death.

New functions are gradually being added, for example the space now includes an agenda where you will find reminders of key dates for you and any children you have, such as obligatory or recommended vaccinations, examinations, and screenings. 

It is also possible to manually add in appointments that you have coming up, and notifications will be sent to you via email reminding you of these. There is a secure messaging service to contact health professionals.

How do I log in?

Letters or emails asking people to activate their profile were sent out as of 2022 for people already in the French system. Only people in the system can use this online space, so this does not include frontier workers registered with a different country’s system or early-retirees who use only private health insurance.

With the codes sent out to people, they were able to register an account.

If you did not receive an activation code (for example, because you moved to France more recently) visit the website and click activer mon espace santé.

You will need your French social security number and carte Vitale serial number for this. The first step is to put in your date of birth (or your child’s date of birth, if opening a space for them). Follow the rest of the steps as requested. People who have difficulty with the process can get help at a local France services centre or at their Cpam.

Who has access?

Only the individual themselves, plus professional healthcare staff such as doctors, can access a person’s health space. Your insurers and employers do not have access.

Healthcare staff must use a personalised magnetic card to access the system and see details, and must also have written or oral authorisation from the patient. After that, any healthcare staff member on the team taking care of you will have access.

If the patient cannot consent due to being unconscious or deemed mentally incapable, medical professionals will be able to access their space unless the patient has previously denied consent in the Accès en cas d’urgence section.

You can also enable or disable access to documents individually by clicking on modifier un document and then selecting the level of confidentiality you need.

How will unauthorised access be checked and stopped?

Individuals can check who has accessed their space by looking at the activity history. The name of the professional, the time of connection, and the document viewed are listed.

When a health professional connects for the first time to a person’s space, the individual will receive an alert by email. The individual can then choose to block access to documents, as explained above.

Medical information must legally be encrypted and organised so that it cannot be downloaded in one go, and this is also the case on this new system.

French companies Worldline and Atos are hosting the data. Assurance Maladie has said that the servers will also be monitored by its IT security experts, who will be alerted in the event of suspicious behaviour.

Anyone who accesses someone’s health space without being a health professional, or for non-medical reasons, will be liable to criminal sanctions.

Even if you accept the creation of your space, you can delete it any time by logging on to the site. The information will then become inaccessible but will be kept for ten years unless you tick the box requesting its permanent deletion. In this case, all data will be permanently deleted from the site. However, this could make it more difficult for doctors to care for you in the event of a health condition or emergency.