[Securing shared medical records]

Established in law on August 13th, 2004, the personal medical records system was intended to ensure better treatment at lower cost, notably by avoiding redundant examinations and incompatible treatments. The system should have been implemented on January 1st, 2007, for all people with medical insurance coverage. Various difficulties, and particularly problems of confidentiality, led to successive postponements. Six years after its creation, the shared medical records system is still not operational. This article examines the theory and the reality, and concludes that fundamental changes must be made to what was an over-ambitious project. Practical and cheaper solutions exist, and would allow the creation of secure individual medical records acceptable to the medical profession and public alike.