Health information technology is developing rapidly, due to a profusion of actors and support from public policies. It generates new uses and functions, for both patients and professional users, thereby suggesting a "digital revolution" is coming. Nevertheless, e-Health's development meets with a particularly complex healthcare system, especially when it comes to primary care services. This situation creates four types of challenges. Firstly, an organizational challenge, meaning e-Health implementation needs to take into account the organization in which it intends to integrate. Secondly, a social and territorial concern, as the burden of inequalities is one of healthcare system's major issues. The third challenge is about economics, as we need to search for new methods for globally apprehending e-Health's business model and long-term sustainability. Lastly, the fourth challenge relates to new technical and legal issues.

BackgroundImprovement of coordination of all health and social care actors in the patient pathways is an important issue in many countries. Health Information (HI) technology has been considered as a potentially effective answer to this issue. The French Health Ministry first funded the development of five TSN (“Territoire de Soins Numérique”/Digital health territories) projects, aiming at improving healthcare coordination and access to information for healthcare providers, patients and the population, and at improving healthcare professionals work organization. The French Health Ministry then launched a call for grant to fund one research project consisting in evaluating the TSN projects implementation and impact and in developing a model for HI technology evaluation.MethodsEvaTSN is mainly based on a controlled before-after study design. Data collection covers three periods: before TSN program implementation, during early TSN program implementation and at late TSN program implementation, in the five TSN projects’ territories and in five comparison territories. Three populations will be considered: “TSN-targeted people” (healthcare system users and people having characteristics targeted by the TSN projects), “TSN patient users” (people included in TSN experimentations or using particular services) and “TSN professional users” (healthcare professionals involved in TSN projects). Several samples will be made in each population depending on the objective, axis and stage of the study.Four types of data sources are considered: 1) extractions from the French National Heath Insurance Database (SNIIRAM) and the French Autonomy Personalized Allowance database, 2) Ad hoc surveys collecting information on knowledge of TSN projects, TSN program use, ease of use, satisfaction and understanding, TSN pathway experience and appropriateness of hospital admissions, 3) qualitative analyses using semi-directive interviews and focus groups and document analyses and 4) extractions of TSN implementation indicators from TSN program database.DiscussionEvaTSN is a challenging French national project for the production of evidenced-based information on HI technologies impact and on the context and conditions of their effectiveness and efficiency. We will be able to support health care management in order to implement HI technologies. We will also be able to produce an evaluation toolkit for HI technology evaluation.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov ID: NCT02837406, 08/18/2016.

Objectives Health information technology (HIT) can help coordinate health and social actors involved in patients’ pathways. We assess five regional HIT-based programmes (‘ Territoires de Soins Numériques’ or TSN) introduced in France, covering the period 2012–2018. Methods This was a quasi-experimental controlled before/after mixed design. We used data from the French National Health Insurance database, qualitative and quantitative surveys, and information extracted from project documents and databases. We assessed the impact of TSN using four main impact indicators: emergency room visits, unplanned hospitalizations, avoidable hospitalizations and rehospitalization within 30 days. We also collected qualitative and secondary quantitative data covering perceived needs, knowledge, use, satisfaction, adoption and understanding of projects, pathway experience, impact on professional practices and appropriateness of hospitalizations. Results TSN implemented a heterogeneous mix of HIT. Implementation was slower than expected and was not well documented. Users perceived the HIT as having a positive but weak overall effect. There were no significant differences in trends for the main impact indicators, nor on the appropriateness of hospitalizations, but favourable trends on secondary polypharmacy indicators. Conclusions If similar innovations take place in future, they should be based on a logical framework that defines causal, measurable links between services provided and expected impacts.