The digital vital card, which takes the form of a mobile application, will be deployed throughout the territory from this year until 2026.
Entering into force on January 1, 2023, a decree from the Ministry of Health governs the deployment of the digital vital card application. Decree in particular sets the timetable for its deployment throughout the territory, the management of personal data and the operation of the application.
In experimentation in several departments since 2019 including the Rhône, Paris, Seine-Maritime or even the North, the digital version of the vital card will be progressive to be fully deployed by 2026 and will take the form of a mobile application. available on Android and iOS.
Has a mobile app. To have a digital vital card, you will have to download the ApCV application and go through a secure procedure via facial recognition. Once the operation has been carried out and the link with the social security number has been established, the digital vital card will appear in the application.
The application will contain a personal space to allow the patient to find the data of his vital card. He will have two possibilities to present his new vital card to a health professional: a QR code available from the application or a scan of the digital card in the same way as a contactless payment.
The application may also allow a third party to use this digital vital card when the insured is unable to travel.
The application will have all the information already available on a classic vital card. The identification data of the holder with the registration number in the national identification directory, a photograph, a postal or electronic address of the holder, the technical data for an electronic signature. On the security side, the application plans to protect access to card information and a system to authenticate the card and identify its holder.
The mobile application, in its initial version, does not plan to include biometric data, except for the photo, as is already the case for current vital cards. For the moment, there is no question of adding fingerprints in the application on the model of passports. However, senators plead for a biometric model in order to avoid fraud, which they consider considerable.
The decree published in the Official Journal on January 1, 2023, aims to oversee the deployment of this new system. Imagined under Agnès Buzyn, the former Minister of Health, as part of the government’s digital and health roadmap, the deployment of the system has been slowed down by the health crisis. The current Minister of Health, François Braun, then took over the reins and relaunched the expansion of the system throughout the territory.
The application is already available in the departments that have experimented with the device since 2019: Rhône, Saône-et-Loire, Seine-Maritime, Bas-Rhin, Nord, Gironde, Hérault, Loire- Atlantic, Sarthe, Puy-de-Dôme, Alpes-Maritimes and Paris.
According to health insurance, the application must be “generalized in 2023 throughout the territory”, but this deadline is extended until 2026 by the government to ensure full availability. Everyone will therefore in principle have access to this new software in 2026. However, several provisions of the decree come into force on various dates, from January 1, 2023, which could trigger a faster availability of the application.
For its part, the National Commission for Computing and Liberties (Cnil) regrets this deployment, however, while the experiment is not over.
And this question is about one in ten people in France. The digital vital card will not be compulsory at all. It is, for the moment, an alternative to the physical card. However, the application “is intended to become the tool for identifying and authenticating patients in the health system”, estimated the Ministry of Health in 2019.
