On 22 and 23 November, the Agence du Numérique en Santé (ANS, the French eHealth Agency) had the great pleasure of welcoming a Norwegian delegation made up of seven counterparts from the Norwegian Directorate of eHealth and the Norwegian Centre for eHealth Research.

A first day focused on health data use

The Norwegian Directorate of e-Health unveiled the main priorities for 2023, including the further development of helsedata.no and the existing infrastructure, as well as the longer-term Norwegian eHealth strategy: eHealth 2023-2030. The Norwegian Centre for eHealth Research then shared a retrospective study on how Norway has moved from a stressed governance model to greater involvement of local actors in decision-making.  

This was an opportunity for the ANS and the Délégation ministérielle au Numérique en Santé (DNS) to present the French e-health strategy and the efforts made in recent years in France to achieve greater representativeness in decision-making circles. As a result, we can see a greater participation of regional and local partners, but also of health professionals, citizens, and patients. The major orientations for accelerating e-health, from governance, security and interoperability to digital services and innovation, were also described.

Joining the discussion on the secondary use of health data, the Health Data Hub provided elements on how to use and share health data with project developers in France, but also on its role as a facilitator for research and health improvement.  To illustrate the need for health data for clinical studies, the Norwegian e-Health Research Centre presented its PraksisNett infrastructure. This includes a platform for statistical processing of data shared by health professionals involved in patient care

A second day focused on innovation and towards greater control of health data by the citizen/patient

The second day of the meeting started with the presentation of PariSanté Campus to our guests, with a focus on this ambitious project to support innovation in health and make France a European leader in the coming years.

The floor was then given to Medicen and Keenturtle, to depict the rich landscape of innovation players. Medicen, the health competitiveness cluster of the Ile-de-France region, described its activity organised around the axes of innovation, financing and Europe & International, particularly in the Biotech-Pharma, MedTech and digital health sectors. Then, Keenturtle presented PharmaClass, a clinical decision support solution already deployed in 40 institutions in 3 countries. PharmaClass provides healthcare professionals with personalised and contextualised alerts to enhance patient safety.

Closing the session on innovation, the ANS presented its activity in support of entrepreneurs, promoting initiatives between e-health actors, building dynamic spaces, and bridging the gap between uses and innovative solutions, thus enabling the development of more efficient health systems.

The meeting also highlighted the various initiatives implemented in France and Norway to give the citizen/patient back control over their health data. A demonstration of Mon Espace Santé and its functionalities took place, completed by a focus on the referencing process of the applications in the service catalogue.

On the Norwegian side, the HelseNorge solution, a national platform for citizens, was presented, as well as its range of services, which has grown considerably since 2011, boosted by the COVID-19 health crisis.

These fruitful discussions enabled the identification of insights for further exchanges and future collaborative projects between France and Norway.