Why is Yncréa Méditerranée interested in this field?
E-health (or digital health) refers to "the application of information and communication technologies to all health-related activities". At the convergence of two fields undergoing rapid development and change, digital health covers a vast field of activity, organized around a number of key areas:
- health information systems that enable better coordination of care within a health care institution (Hospital Information Systems or HIS, Electronic Patient Record or DPI, etc.) or a health care territory (Shared Health Information Systems);
- telemedicine, which offers remote care and covers five categories of medical procedure: tele-consultation, tele-expertise, telemonitoring, tele-assistance and medical regulation (center 15);
- Tele-health integrating monitoring and prevention services for individuals with a primary objective of well-being (connected objects, mobile self-measurement applications, web platforms, etc.). Depending on the users, it is possible to distinguish three types of generic technological devices within these fields of application:
- technological devices focused on patients or the general public: m-health or m-health (M for Mobile), mobile health applications, web health applications, connected objects, social networks (patient communities), health information portals, etc,
- technological systems focused on healthcare providers such as healthcare establishments and professionals: in-house HIS, shared information systems, on-board information systems (e.g. SMUR), telemedicine systems, etc,
- technological devices centered on insurance companies, public regulators and industry: generic customer relationship management (CRM) tools as well as data mining (internal data) or big data (external data) tools for the collection, storage and algorithmic processing of massive health data.
In 2020, the national digital health development strategy is built around four main priorities:
- develop connected medicine through a "big data" plan for health; for example, this plan will allow the development of new applications for remote monitoring or interpretation of medical data to assist doctors in their diagnosis;
- encourage co-innovation between healthcare professionals, citizens and economic players by launching calls for projects dedicated to e-health or the development of living labs in order to imagine, in direct contact with users, the medicine of tomorrow;
- simplify administrative procedures for patients (admission, online appointment booking, etc.) and equip health democracy with a digital platform that facilitates user consultation and participation;
- strengthen the security of health information systems through a dedicated action plan.