eHealth Network

France elected to co-chair the eHealth Network alongside the European Commission

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The eHealth Network leads the European work on digital health. The Digital Health Delegation has applied to co-chair this network and prepare for the arrival of the European Health Data Space.
Raphaël Beaufret, co-head of the Digital Health Delegation (DNS) of the French Ministry of Health and Prevention, was elected today by the representatives of the European Union Member states to represent them as co-chair of the eHealth Network.

The Digital Health Delegation warmly thanks the Member States for their trust and is delighted to strengthen its commitment to working together with them and with the European Commission. The eHealth Network was created by the European directive on cross-border care2. It is composed of representatives of the Member States for digital health as well as representatives of Norway and Iceland who have observer status.

Raphaël Beaufret succeeds Ron Roozendaal, who held this position for the Netherlands. The Nethelands’ mandate was marked by the success of the work carried out by the eHealth Network, in particular with the development and implementation of the EU Digital Covid Certificate, which has become an international standard used in 76 countries. He will co-chair with Maya Matthews (DG Health & Food Safety) for the European Commission.

This two-year mandate takes place in a strategic context for digital health in Europe, with the arrival of the future regulation for the European Health Data Space (EHDS) currently being negotiated. This draft regulation includes the implementation of a new governance for digital health in Europe. The Digital Health Delegation is fully committed to meeting this challenge, serving the Member States and contributing to the construction of a Europe of health through digital technology.

France has been involved in the construction of the European Health Data Space since the beginning, by voluntarily participating in its two components, MyHealth@EU and HealthData@EU. These two projects are at the heart of the future European regulation, which plans to make them mandatory for Member States.

Within the framework of MyHealth@EU, France participates in the secure exchange of health data for the care of patients anywhere in the EU. France's national contact point is managed by the Agence du Numérique en Santé (ANS). Since July 2021, it allows French healthcare professionals to access the medical summary of the European patients they care for via www.sesali.fr. 11 countries have already joined this initiative and the European Commission has announced that all 27 EU member states, as well as Norway, Iceland and Ukraine will have joined by 2027.

At the same time, the French Health Data Hub is leading a consortium of 16 European partners in charge of implementing the HealthData@EU pilot of the European Health Data Space for the re-use of health data.

These exciting topics are structuring the future of digital health at the European level. France is committed to strengthening our collective capacity to meet the economic, technical and diplomatic challenges in front of us.