Complementary services now in France’s online health space

Emergency home delivery of medicines and blood sugar level monitoring for diabetics are among a dozen services now advertised on France’s official online health platform.

The 12 certified apps or websites are listed in the Catalogue de services tab when users log in to their Mon Espace Santé account, which is designed to help patients manage all their medical records, continuing treatments and appointments.

The services might be free or paid for, and are provided by both public and private sector organisations.

Read more: New digital space rolled out in France to better manage health data

As well as the diabetes monitoring and home delivery platforms, other services on the list allow users to make appointments for home care (eg. nurses, physiotherapists, midwives) or order medical equipment, and give parents a heads-up on important health events in the lives of their children.

There are also links to Ameli, the health insurance app, and sante.fr, the public health information service website, as well as a secure personal emergency file that can be accessed directly by emergency services for optimised individual care.

‘Quality and trustworthy services’

The aim is to give the 65.4 million French people who have a Mon Espace Santé account access to “quality and trustworthy services to take care of [their] health”, said Assurance maladie.

More links are due to be added soon.

The platform is also going to offer an online medical diary so users can group appointments and receive screening and vaccination reminders.

Mon Espace Santé launched nationwide last February after trials in selected departments.

Previously, health documents were kept by patients and then brought to appointments, or stored on the (optional) Dossier Médical Partagé (DMP) digitised medical file, which is now being phased out.

These new accounts are pre-created for people but it is possible to opt out.

The new online platform lets users access their medical history, including prescriptions, X-rays and other documents.

You can add and check on your known allergies, conditions or illnesses, treatment plans and possible ‘last wishes’.

These details can be accessed by healthcare professionals but are not available to insurers or employers.

Doctors and nurses must ask you before they view your account and you will receive a notification each time they log into it.

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