A general practitioner spending twenty minutes searching for a specialist report across three different software systems is a daily reality in many practices. Online health solutions specifically aim to address this type of friction: reducing time wasted on non-medical tasks to reinvest it in consultations. However, it is essential to choose the right tools and configure them correctly.
Interoperability with My Health Space: the selection criterion that practices underestimate
Since 2024, the Digital Health Agency has been pushing medical software publishers to prove their compatibility with My Health Space, the successor to the DMP. Specifically, this refers to technical references such as INS, Pro Santé Connect, and the associated foundational services.
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What this changes in daily practice: a compatible software automatically feeds the patient’s shared medical record. No more manual exporting of PDF documents to a separate portal. The consultation report, prescription, and lab results are uploaded directly.
Before subscribing to an online solution, three specific points should be checked. Is the software listed among the solutions compatible with My Health Space? Does it natively manage INS identification? Does it offer authentication via Pro Santé Connect to avoid multiplying identifiers?
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On this last point, feedback varies among publishers. Some claim compatibility without the flow actually working in production. Testing with a fictitious patient before migrating remains the most reliable method. A panorama of concrete uses is detailed in health solutions on Else Revue, with cases tailored to different specialties.
GDPR compliance of telemedicine tools: clauses to read before signing
The CNIL published specific guidelines in 2023 regarding the use of generative AI and teleconsultation in health. The central point: the location of servers and the minimization of collected data.
In practice, many teleconsultation solutions host video streams on servers outside the European Union, sometimes through subcontractors whose contractual clauses go unnoticed. Since health data is considered sensitive under GDPR, transferring data outside the EU without adequate safeguards exposes the practitioner to direct legal risk.
Concrete checks to be carried out
- Physically locate the storage and transit servers in the subcontracting contract (technical annex, often at the end of the document).
- Check for the presence of a patient data pseudonymization mechanism in teleconsultation flows, distinct from simple encryption in transit.
- Ensure that the publisher documents the transparency of its algorithms when medical decision support is integrated (obligation of traceability for generated recommendations).
- Control the video recording retention policy, which must respect the principle of minimization rather than a maximum duration unilaterally decided by the publisher.
This is not about administrative formalities. A practitioner is responsible for the processing of their patients’ data, even when delegating hosting to a provider. The subcontracting contract is the document to read first, not the sales brochure.
Medical software and decision support: what really works in consultation
Clinical decision support tools integrated into medical software are multiplying. Some rely on continuously updated factual databases, while others use AI models trained on medical literature. The distinction matters.
A useful decision support tool must integrate into the existing workflow, not open a separate window. A doctor who has to leave their prescription software to consult an external database wastes time instead of saving it. The most advanced solutions display alerts and recommendations directly in the prescription entry interface.
Points of vigilance on automated systems
European regulators are now closely monitoring AI devices in health. A system that proposes a diagnosis or guides a therapeutic decision potentially falls under the medical devices regulation. CE marking then becomes a prerequisite, not a bonus.
In consultations, two genuinely productive uses are observed:
- Automatic verification of drug interactions at the time of prescription, with contextual display of severity levels.
- Direct access to clinical practice guideline summaries from the patient record, without additional navigation.
More ambitious functions (AI differential diagnosis suggestion, automatic consultation summary) remain experimental in most liberal medicine environments. Their reliability heavily depends on the quality of training data, and none of these tools replace the clinical reasoning of the practitioner.
Medical time management: automating repetitive tasks without losing control
Optimizing medical time starts with identifying time-consuming tasks with low added value. Managing phone calls for appointment scheduling, consultation reminders, and result transmission: these flows can be delegated to online systems without losing relational quality.
A well-configured online calendar significantly reduces incoming calls. Automated SMS reminders decrease unannounced absences. And secure patient-doctor messaging avoids phone exchanges for simple questions (renewals, certificate requests).
The limit lies in the initial configuration. A poorly configured tool generates as many problems as it solves: inappropriate time slots, appointment duplicates, excessive notifications. Ideally, half a day should be dedicated to configuration, testing each patient scenario before putting the system into production.
Choosing an online health solution is not just about comparing features on a product sheet. Interoperability with the My Health Space ecosystem, verifiable GDPR compliance in contractual clauses, and seamless integration into the consultation flow are the three filters to apply as a priority. A tool that ticks these boxes truly frees up medical time; others add a layer of complexity.