Consultation: a principle for action

Consultation, with both private and public institutional stakeholders within the healthcare sector, is built into the constitution of ASIP Santé and is therefore central to ASIP Santé's partnership policy. The necessity to involve all health stakeholders is a key driver to developing a common vision of shared health information systems.

Efficient consultation with e-health stakeholders

The first stage of the relaunch – consultation on the first version of the interoperability framework – demonstrated ASIP Santé's intention to involve software developers in the sector and stakeholders from health institutions in the construction of the electronic health record (DMP). The agency is continuing the consultation process initiated in 2007-2008 with representatives of healthcare professionals, software developers and patients, and this dialogue is the basis for the initial work conducted on the DMP.
The national health identifier (INS) programme is another example of consultation in action, and is still ongoing: on this project, ASIP Santé is working with France's data protection commission (CNIL), the French national health insurance fund for salaried employees (CNAM-TS) and the Ministry of Health.
Furthermore, a working group comprising representatives of patients, and of members of the French Medical Association, the French pharmacists association, the French health insurance fund, the CNIL and ASIP Santé, meets regularly to draft a practical guide to patient consent.

Cooperative partnerships with public health stakeholders

In its capacity as the authoritative stakeholder in the domain of e-health, the agency has initiated numerous discussions with its partners in 2009. The objective is to formalize cooperation agreements which will facilitate the development of services for healthcare professionals and improve the organization of those services. The talks initiated with the French national cancer institute (InCA) and the French general medical service (SMFG) have thus led to partnership agreements being signed.
Discussions with other partners such as the French institute for public health surveillance (INvS) and the hospital-at-home organization (FNEHAD) are on the right track and should result in new cooperation agreements being signed in 2010.

The performance of information systems at the heart of the partnership between ASIP Santé and ANAP (the French agency supporting the performance of health and French medico-social institutions)

The governance of the healthcare system turned a corner in 2009, with the publication of the law on hospital reform and on patients, healthcare and the regions (HPST) and the creation of two state agencies with converging missions: to organize the healthcare system and improve the performance of health institutions. These agencies are ASIP Santé and ANAP. ANAP is tasked with providing institutions with services and tools that will enable them to improve the quality and management of healthcare, and some of its missions involve the modernization of information systems. Against this backdrop, ASIP Santé and ANAP decided to draft a cooperation agreement centred around common work strategies.