Sending a letter to the Minister of Health calling for the rapid distribution of a Call for Tenders for the choice of data host for the “Health Data Platform” or “HealthDataHub “.

Subject

Publication of the consultation calendar for the choice of host for the “Health Data Platform”.

Content of the letter

Minister,

The deployment of a “Health Data Platform” through the creation of a Public Interest Grouping, was proclaimed by law n° 2019-774 of July 24, 2019 relating to the organization and transformation of the health system1. This “Health Data Platform” aims to develop artificial intelligence in the health sector and to become the one-stop shop for access to all health data on the national territory. The data concerned are those from hospitals, pharmacies, shared medical records and research data from various registers. The amount of data hosted is set to explode with the emergence of genomics, imaging and connected objects.

Currently in the prefiguration phase of the project, this data is stored at Microsoft Azure 2, the public cloud of the American giant Microsoft. This choice has been criticized by many public3 4 5 and private6 actors.

The CNIL in its deliberation No. 2020-044 of 20 April 2020 7 refers to “contracts provided” (p.6 CNIL opinion of 20 April 2020) mentioning the risks of data transfers to third countries and disclosures not authorized by EU law in the context of the subcontracting contract of the technical solution of the “platform” to Microsoft Azure. On 19 June 2020, the Council of State enjoined the “Platform for Health Data” to inform citizens of the “possible transfer of data outside the European Union, given the contract with its subcontractor”8.

Subsequently, Mr. Cédric O9, then Secretary of State for Digital Technology, and yourself, very recently in the Senate, announced a call for tenders for the production of this “platform”10.We thank you for this and ask you to let us know the timetable.

Given the particularly large number of people concerned (more than 67 million users) and the sensitive nature of the personal data contained in the “Health Data Platform”, we have decided to make this letter public. As well as the rapid publication of the timetable of the Call for Tenders, this publicity contributes to the objective of transparency that we all wish to achieve.

We look forward to receiving your response. Please accept, Mr. Minister, the assurance of our highest consideration.

Association interhop.org

  1. LAW No. 2019-774 of 24 July 2019 on the organisation and transformation of the health system ↩

  2. How to store the “health data hub” ↩

  3. Le Monde - “ La politique publique des données de santé est à réinventer “ ↩

  4. Le Nouvel Obs - Nos données de santé à Microsoft ? “We offer Americans a national wealth unique in the world” ↩

  5. The Conversation - Health Data: the StopCovid tree that hides the Health Data Hub forest  ↩

  6. Le Point - Health Data Hub: “The choice of Microsoft, an industrial misunderstanding! “ ↩

  7. Measures of organization and functioning of the health system necessary to deal with the covid-19 epidemic in the context of the state of health emergency  ↩

  8. Council of State, 19 June 2020, Health Data Hub Platform ↩

  9. StopCovid application press conference, June 23rd ↩

  10. Health data protection: MORIN-DESAILLY Catherine ↩