AGENCE DU NUMÉRIQUE EN SANTÉ

Their core work

Agence du Numérique en Santé (ANS) is France's national public agency for digital health, responsible for defining and deploying health data standards, interoperability frameworks, and electronic health record infrastructure across the French healthcare system. In EU projects, ANS participates as the authoritative national body for French eHealth policy, contributing regulatory expertise and real-world implementation experience from operating national health data systems at scale. Their project contributions center on aligning French national standards with European frameworks for exchanging clinical data — including laboratory results, hospital discharge reports, and medical imaging records. They are not a research organization in the conventional sense; their value lies in translating policy requirements into technical standards and validating those standards through national deployment.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (2016–2018), ANS focused on the governance and assessment layer — building a scheme to certify whether eHealth systems actually conform to interoperability standards, a foundational regulatory task. By their second project (2020–2022), the focus had moved from assessment infrastructure to actual data exchange content: specific clinical document types (lab results, discharge reports, imaging) and the EHRxF format for structuring them across borders. This shift mirrors the broader EU digital health trajectory — from agreeing on compliance rules to actually making clinical records flow across systems and countries. The trajectory points toward deeper engagement with structured clinical data standards and cross-border health record implementation rather than policy-level conformity work.

ANS is moving from defining how to assess eHealth compliance toward implementing the actual cross-border clinical data exchange standards — a shift that positions them as a key national actor in the European Health Data Space rollout.

How they like to work

ANS consistently joins projects as a participant, never as coordinator — a pattern typical of national public authorities that contribute institutional legitimacy and policy reach rather than leading technical work packages. Despite only two projects, they engaged with 45 distinct partners across 23 countries, indicating participation in large pan-European CSA consortia where the value of each member is their national mandate rather than research output. Working with ANS means having the French national digital health authority in the room, which opens doors for regulatory alignment and national deployment pathways in France.

With 45 unique partners across 23 countries from just two projects, ANS operates within large, geographically diverse European consortia — a footprint consistent with EU-wide coordination actions on health data policy. Their network is broad rather than deep, reflecting their role as a national authority representative rather than a recurring research collaborator.

What sets them apart

ANS is not a research institute or technology provider — they are the French government's designated body for digital health standards, which means they carry the authority to align EU-level frameworks with national implementation in France. For a consortium building cross-border health data exchange tools, having ANS validates the French regulatory dimension and can accelerate national uptake across France's 66 million patient records system. No other French partner can offer that combination of standards authority, operational infrastructure access, and government mandate in one organisation.

Highlights from their portfolio

• X-eHealth
  Their largest and most technically specific project, directly targeting the EHRxF cross-border exchange standard with coverage of laboratory results, medical imaging, hospital discharge reports, and rare diseases — the core building blocks of the European Health Data Space.
• EURO-CAS
  Their first H2020 engagement, contributing to a foundational EU-wide conformity assessment scheme for eHealth interoperability — establishing ANS as a recognised actor in European digital health governance from 2016.