The Inserm CépiDc and Jouve: The digitisation of confidential data on the medical causes of death

The Inserm chose the electronic method for certifying the medical causes of death. This process guarantees a continuous monitoring which allows the Inserm to react more quickly to sanitary alerts.

Can you explain what motivated this strategic project?

Mr. Gérard Pavillon, research engineer, head of the l'Inserm CépiDc project: The certification of medical causes of death was initially based on paper documents sent to the town hall and, then, from the town hall to the DDASS and the INSEE, and, finally, from the DDASS to the Inserm. These practices were problematic in terms of delays, reliability, reactivity and confidentiality.

The Inserm and the Health Agency wanted to improve this transmission and entrusted the Jouve Group with the installation of an electronic certification process. France is thus one of the first countries to have digitised the monitoring of medical causes of death.

What were the main issues?

Mr. Gérard Pavillon: The CépiDc wanted to be able to monitor the medical causes of death. Our main objective was to measure the level of mortality in a few minutes and to be able to communicate epidemiological figures the next day or the day after.

For this project, the Inserm also wanted the doctors to be able to fill out the online forms as quickly as if it had been done on paper.

Which solution did you choose for this major project?

Mr. Gérard Pavillon: Jouve has developed a secure specialised application for capturing death certificates on-line, the information collection, and their anonymous return to the various organisations. Jouve’s experts have also worked on the graphical conception and the ergonomics of the application, which should simplify the data capture, while respecting current working methods.

The graphical interface created by Jouve is user-friendly and intuitive. It has allowed doctors to quickly adopt this application, and help them in the changes. Judging by witness accounts, we can confirm that this first objective has been attained!

This data is sensitive – how do you guarantee its confidentiality and security?

Mr. Gérard Pavillon: This 100 % open-source collaborative tool handling sensitive and confidential data, uses secure data interfaces with various protocols. Jouve has deployed several modules, such as the interactive collection system, the secure file transfer in standard systems, and data retrieval. This service integrates a strong authentification using GIP CPS (Public Interest Group and Professional Health Card – Groupement d’Intérêt Publique et Carte Professionnelle de Santé) chip cards and electronic signatures.

 What have you learnt from this?

Mr. Gérard Pavillon: This project is just a starting point, which will show how information can be transmitted by certifying doctors in one component of a health alert system. We also note that the certificates are better filled in.

Thanks to the deployment of this application, and the use of electronic certification, we can reduce the time required to produce death statistics, improve the quality and reliability of the data using all the possibilities of interactions with the doctor.