EY Advisory and Kereval have just won a major contract to provide project management assistance in interoperability, urbanization and architecture of healthcare information systems (IS) for the Agence du numérique en santé (ANS). These two partners, co-contractors for this contract, have already collaborated successfully on projects serving the ANS since 2017.

EY Consulting is one of the leading healthcare consultancies, with particularly recognized, cutting-edge expertise across the entire digital health value chain. Kereval, for its part, has recognized expertise in healthcare IS interoperability at international level, and its application in France with the healthcare IS interoperability framework (CI-SIS).

The contract is worth an estimated 5.4 million euros excluding VAT. It was signed on September 22 for a four-year period.

“The Kereval team is very proud to have won this major contract for the ANS, in a consortium with EY, a trusted and high-quality partner! We’re also proud to contribute to accelerating the deployment of e-health in France through the Ségur de la Santé! A further recognition of our expertise in interoperability testing, and a boost to our growth!” declares Abdelmoula Tamoudi, Chairman and CEO of Kereval.

Accelerating e-health

This deal will help drive forward the French government’s ambitious “Ma Santé 2022” plan, aimed in particular at accelerating the digital shift in healthcare. It comes at a pivotal time when “all the e-health planets are aligned”. The Covid crisis has accelerated awareness among the general public and all healthcare professionals of the contribution that digital technology can make to the health, medical-social and social sectors. It also convinced the public authorities to devote considerable financial resources to accelerating digital transformation, a dynamic recently reinforced with the Ségur de la Santé. As a result, the ANS has seen its role greatly strengthened, and even capitalized on, in the development of digital uses.

25 jobs to be filled

This national and international momentum in favor of e-health deployment is driving Kereval’s development. As a result, the SME, which employs 65 people near Rennes, is planning an ambitious recruitment program of 25 people over the next two years for the Healthcare Division. It is currently looking for e-health consulting engineers, interoperability experts and IT developers.

The healthcare sector accounts for over 50% of the company’s sales. Its major customers include the international association IHE-Europe, which promotes the interoperability of healthcare IS in Europe, the ANS, ministries of health in Europe, GCS e-santé in Brittany, Ile-de-France and Occitanie, as well as complementary health insurance organizations.

Interoperability as a booster

Although invisible to the general public, the notion of interoperability is essential to the development of value-added uses. Interoperability can be defined at different levels: legal, organizational, semantic, syntactic and technical. Its aim is to define a common language understood by all, based on structured data, international standards and nomenclatures. It also paves the way for European data exchanges, by removing language barriers.

The strong growth in international exchanges will lead many sectors of activity to develop interoperable information systems, opening up excellent prospects for development and sectoral diversification for Kereval.