ANS — Agence du Numérique en Santé
Overview
The Agence du Numérique en Santé (ANS) is the French national agency responsible for developing and coordinating digital health standards, interoperability frameworks, and health information systems in France. Created in 2019 from the merger of the former ASIP Santé and the digital health mission of the DGOS (Direction Générale de l’Offre de Soins), ANS operates under the French Ministry of Health and is the French national competent body for health IT standardisation. It manages the French national release of SNOMED CT, publishes French national HL7 FHIR Implementation Guides and profiles, and operates the CI-SIS interoperability framework that defines how French health information systems must exchange data. It is also France’s national contact point for the MyHealth@EU primary use pillar of the EHDS.
French national standards work
ANS is France’s SNOMED International National Release Centre, maintaining the French-language translation of SNOMED CT and publishing the French National Release (fr-FR) for use in French EHR systems and clinical coding. It also publishes French national HL7 FHIR profiles and Implementation Guides covering specific clinical use cases such as hospitalisation summaries, medication reconciliation, and vaccination records, with France primarily on FHIR R4. These sit within the CI-SIS (Cadre d’Interopérabilité des Systèmes d’Information de Santé), France’s master interoperability framework, which specifies the standards mandatory for French health IT systems, including HL7 FHIR R4, SNOMED CT, LOINC, and DICOM, together with French national profiles and extensions on them.
Mon Espace Santé
ANS operates Mon Espace Santé, France’s national personal health record accessible to all citizens, which stores and exchanges patient documents such as prescriptions, vaccination records, and medical summaries in HL7 FHIR format. This is the personal-record system and is distinct from the SNDS, the national claims and hospital discharge database used for population-level research and accessed through the Health Data Hub.
EHDS role
Under the EHDS, ANS operates the Sesali service that lets French healthcare professionals consult a European patient’s medical summary, as the national contact point for the MyHealth@EU primary use infrastructure. For the secondary use pillar, the Health Data Hub was named France’s competent authority and is the expected Health Data Access Body (the French ORAD, organisme responsable de l’accès aux données), with formal arrangements being finalised ahead of the March 2027 EHDS designation deadline.
Connections
- relatedTo: SNOMED CT (ANS is France’s SNOMED International National Release Centre, maintaining the French-language translation and publishing the French National Release)
- relatedTo: HL7 FHIR (ANS publishes French national FHIR profiles and Implementation Guides via the CI-SIS interoperability framework)
- relatedTo: EHDS (ANS is France’s national contact point for the MyHealth@EU primary use infrastructure under EHDS)
Resources
- https://esante.gouv.fr
- https://interop.esante.gouv.fr (ANS FHIR IGs and CI-SIS)
- https://www.monespacesante.fr (Mon Espace Santé — French national health portal)
- https://esante.gouv.fr/produits-services/espace-numerique-de-sante (ENS programme)