EY Advisory and Kereval have just won a major contract to provide project management assistance in interoperability, urbanisation and architecture of healthcare information systems (IS) with the French Digital Health Agency (ANS). These two partners, who are co-contractors on this project, have already successfully collaborated on projects for the ANS since 2017.

EY Consulting is one of the leading healthcare firms and has a particularly well recognised and specific expertise on the entire digital health value chain. Kereval has renowned expertise in the interoperability of health information systems at the international level and its application in France with the Interoperability Framework for Health Information Systems (CI-SIS).

The contract is worth an estimated €5.4 million excluding tax. It was signed on 22 September for a period of four years.

“The Kereval team is very proud to have won this important contract for the ANS in collaboration with EY, a trusted and quality partner! We are also proud to contribute to the acceleration of the deployment of e-health in France through the Ségur de la Santé! This is further recognition of our expertise in interoperability testing and an accelerator for our growth,” says Abdelmoula Tamoudi, CEO of Kereval.

Accelerating e-health

This contract will help advance the French government’s ambitious “Ma Santé 2022” plan to accelerate the digital shift in healthcare. It comes at a pivotal moment when “all the planets in e-health are aligned”. The Covid crisis has accelerated the awareness of the general public and all health professionals regarding the contribution of digital technology in the health, medical and social sectors. It has also convinced the public authorities to devote considerable financial resources to accelerating the digital transformation, an approach that was recently reinforced with the Ségur de la Santé. As a result, the ANS has seen its role strongly reinforced, even crucial in the development of the use of digital technology.

25 positions to be filled

This national and international dynamic in favour of the deployment of e-health is the driving force behind Kereval’s development. Thus, the SME, which employs 65 people near Rennes, is planning an ambitious programme to recruit 25 people within the next two years for the Health Department. It is currently looking for e-health consulting engineers, interoperability experts and IT developers.

The health sector accounts for over 50% of the company’s turnover. Its main clients are the international association IHE-Europe, which promotes the interoperability of health information systems in Europe, the ANS, the ministries of health in Europe, the e-health GCSs of Brittany, Ile-de-France and Occitania, as well as complementary health insurance companies.

Interoperability, a booster

The notion of interoperability, which is invisible to the general public, is nonetheless essential for developing value-added applications. Interoperability can be defined at different levels: legal, organisational, semantic, syntactic and technical. Its objective is to define a common language understood by all, based on structured data, standards and international terminology. It also paves the way for European data exchange by removing language barriers.

The strong growth of international communication will lead many sectors of activity to develop interoperable information systems, opening up great prospects for development and sector-specific diversification for Kereval.