Vitale’s dematerialized map is coming: how does it work?

From this summer, the Vitale card will be available on a new medium in eight French departments: the Vitale e-card. Through a downloadable application, insured persons will be able to use this dematerialized version on their smartphone. The rest of the departments will be gradually equipped from the beginning of 2024, at the end of this phase of full-scale testing.

From this summer, insured persons from eight French departments will have access to it: Rhone, Alpes-Maritimes, Loire-Atlantique, Puy-de-Dome, Sarthe, Seine-Maritime, Bas-Rhin and Saone-et-Loire. The first pilot phase has been carried out in two departments since 2019. At the end of this large-scale trial, Cnil (National Commission on Computing and Liberties) approved the electronic device last February.

From the next few days, residents of the eight departments mentioned above will be able to download the app, available on Android and iOS, which Health Insurance says will “easy access and easy to use”. To receive it, you need only two conditions: attachment to a social security organization in one of the selected branches and the presence of a smartphone.

In case of technical difficulties when downloading the application, policyholders can be accompanied by their local fund. Two methods of identification will be offered upon activation of the application: either through the national electronic identity card (CNI-e), or by comparing the photo of the user’s face with the photo of his identity document.

This dematerialized version is “supplement to the physical map” : nothing obliges at this stage either to choose a new format, or to completely abandon the old one. The Vitale e-card is different from the government’s “biometric vital card” to combat social fraud, the feasibility and cost of which is still being studied. Another path follows – the fusion of the ID card and the Vitale card, which is less complicated for medical professionals than a biometric device.

If the Vitale e-card can be compatible in the future with the final device, then for now it is completely different from it. “Biometric” identification, one of the two means of activating her application, is specific and unrelated to the provided “Vitale biometric card”.

They will always have a Vitale card if they always have a smartphone with them. From now on, they will be able to use their e-card in the same circumstances as they currently do with a green card, with pharmacists, doctors, private nurses or hospitals. The app will also allow them “Directly check your care spending summaries”says Medicare, to whose services she will “front door”.

Ultimately, it will be a tool to identify with other digital health services. In later versions, it can also be delegated to a trusted person for a certain amount of time. A small plus: the dematerialized Vitale card will be automatically updated by the application, neither the insured nor the pharmacists will have to carry out this manipulation anymore, as it is now.

According to Medicare, the Vitale e-card has a number of benefits for healthcare professionals and should make it easier to share information with patients. It is estimated that the latter is less likely to forget his mobile phone than his Vitale card, which ensures that they can remote transfer immediately. Care sheets will also be safer and more reliable thanks to the systematic access to the rights service that the application allows. Finally, not having to handle the physical card will reduce the risk of infection.

On the other hand, professionals will need to get new readers to access patient data. Two options are offered, both contactless: either a QR code reader that needs to be pointed at the patient’s smartphone, or an NFC reader, on which the patient places their smartphone directly.

The pilot phase in eight selected departments will start this summer and, if successful, should be extended to all of France in early 2024. According to the planned schedule, all French insurers will have access to the Vitale e-card by December 31, 2025, however this will remain optional.