La gestion des archives dans le secteur médical à l'ère numérique

In French law, the word “archives” doesn't refer only to old paper documents. Electronic data and files, e-mails and, in short, all information assets-electronic or not-of an organization are “archives”, as soon as they are created. Since the Act 2000-230 recognizes the legal value of texts produced using electronic technologies, each organization needs to guarantee integrity of its electronic data, which could be needed for being produced before a court. As a result, it became critical to preserve the archives' reliability, integrity and authenticity. Moreover, data's readability is threatened by the continuous technical obsolescence, whereas these data become essential for future researches. Due to progressive digitization and computerization of hospitals, French health sector must rise to the challenge of information governance in digital era. The risks issued from medical activities require recording all the actions in order to guarantee processes' reliability. Other requirements are provided for by specific law for public institutions and concern a lot of health institutions. Information governance of health sector is consequently governed by several specific laws, which concern different activities. This article begins describing legal principles governing records management in public sector. Then it broaches the particular question of information governance in health sector. Finally, it clarifies the proper legal rules to digitization. An appendix lists the texts which govern records' lifecycle in public health sector.