The French health information system.

After a brief presentation of the components and evolution of the French statistical health information system, this article goes on to describe the main sources of data from which public health indicators are derived. Among sources that cover the whole country, or those based on data collection that can be extrapolated to the whole French population, the article focuses on exhaustive health databases essentially those run by the administration: mortality data provided by death certificates, morbidity data collected from administrative patient management files, particularly from hospitals and health insurance organizations and other health data from compulsory reporting. It also presents other sources of data such as large national general population surveys, national surveys involving health professionals or structures, and health surveillance networks and registries. The article mentions two important problems faced by the French health statistics system, namely the linkage of different sources, while respecting legislation on personal privacy and the organisation of access to data for research, surveillance and public health purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]