Telemedicine experiment continues in France

“ETAPES” is an experiment that encourages and financially supports the deployment of coherent and relevant telemonitoring pilot projects throughout the country. Initially planned in 9 regions from, the experiment began in January 2014, and it was subsequently extended to the entire country. 

Remote monitoring is defined by is defined by Article R.6316-1, point 3 of the Public Health Code, and it is described as “an act that allows a medical professional to remotely interpret the data necessary for the medical follow-up of a patient and, if necessary, makes the decisions relating to the care of this patient.”

Objectives of remote monitoring are:

• To target patients at risk of recurrent hospitalizations or patients at risk of complications in the medium and long term 
• To achieve a state of stability of the disease or even an improvement by rapid access to the opinion of a specialist or an expert in their field of expertise
• To improve the quality of care and their efficiency 
• to improve the quality of life of patients

Article 54 of the Social Security Financing Act for 2018 extended the “ETAPES” experiment for 4 more years. This activity assumes that several types of actors coordinate around the patient to perform the medical telemonitoring, provide the technical solution, or provide therapeutic support for the patient. This requires time, so the experiment is prolonged.

The program still concerns the same five pathologies, but with broader patient profiles:

• Heart failure
• Renal failure
• Respiratory failure
• Diabetes
• Implantable cardiac prostheses

The French Ministry of Health calls manufacturers to contribute by supplying their technologies.

The experiment will be evaluated and validated by the French High Authority for Health (HAS) by June 2021 (interim report in September 2019).

See full details in French here.

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