Paris (AFP)

The digital health space will be deployed for all French people on January 1, 2022, after satisfactory experimentation in three pilot departments, Minister of Health Olivier Véran told Station F, the Parisian temple of start-ups, on Tuesday.

"We tested the digital health space at the territorial level with good results," said Mr. Véran to AFP, during a conference devoted to the strategy of accelerating digital health , as part of the recovery plan.

"National deployment is scheduled for January 1" for "all French people" and their caregivers, he said.

The digital health space will initially be a digital storage space where the patient can store his medical documents, and his personalized medical file (DMP) if he has one.

It must also include secure messaging for exchanges between patients and caregivers.

People who do not want this digital health space will have a period of one month to oppose a space being created in their name, recalled Olivier Véran.

"It will take time, you can imagine, for everyone to acclimatize and learn to use it, but this is going to be a small revolution very favorable to health," he said.

Olivier Véran, as well as three other members of the government, Frédérique Vidal (Research), Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Industry) and Cédric O (Digital) came to Station F on Tuesday to present the government's “digital health acceleration strategy” .

The State plans to spend 650 million euros over 5 years for this strategy, which is part of the 7.5 billion euros plan for health innovation, announced in June by the President of the Republic.

The plan foresees, for example, 100 million euros to subsidize up to 60% of the cost of clinical evaluation of software and other digital health devices - start-ups often do not have the backbone strong enough to bear the costs on their own. verification of the clinical effectiveness of their innovations.

It also provides for the creation of around thirty digital innovation experimentation services in hospitals and other healthcare organizations, and a budget of 100 million euros for the development of the medical imaging sector.

On the research and training side, the plan also provides for 81 million euros for the digital training of doctors, pharmacists, nurses and other health professionals.

The envelope will also be used to train engineers, lawyers and regulatory experts in digital health.

© 2021 AFP