Health data hosting
HDS-certified hosting for psychologists and therapists
- Hosted in the European Union
- HDS-certified host
- Publicly verifiable certification
The My International Therapy website, the therapist dashboard and their data are hosted in the European Union by an HDS-certified host (HDS stands for "hébergeur de données de santé", or health data host). The notes you keep about your patients are entrusted to a host that holds the certification French law requires for health data.
What is HDS certification?
In France, article L.1111-8 of the Public Health Code (opens in a new tab) (in French) requires anyone who hosts health data in digital form on behalf of others, when that data was collected during care, prevention, diagnosis or follow-up, to be certified. The certificate is issued by an accredited body against a set of requirements whose version 2 was approved by the order of 26 April 2024 (opens in a new tab) (in French).
A host can be certified for some or all of the six activities defined in these requirements:
- Physical sites
- Hardware infrastructure
- Virtual infrastructure
- Application hosting platform
- Administration and operation of the information system
- External backup
The French digital health agency (Agence du numérique en santé, ANS) publishes the official list of HDS-certified hosts (opens in a new tab), which anyone can consult.
What this means for you and your patients
Data hosted in the European Union
The website, the dashboard and their data are hosted in the European Union by a host certified for all six HDS activities, under version 2 of the requirements.
A certification you can check
Our host appears on the public list kept by the French digital health agency, along with the activities covered and the body that issued its certificate.
The GDPR framework
Information about mental health is health data under the GDPR, which makes it one of the special categories of data protected by its article 9.
You stay in charge of your records
The certification applies to the host, not to My International Therapy or to your practice: as a therapist, you remain responsible for your patients’ data under the GDPR.
What about the rest of Europe?
HDS certification is specific to France. Across the rest of the European Union, the GDPR sets the common ground: health data calls for stronger protection everywhere. Each country may add its own rules, and your national data protection authority can tell you which ones apply to your practice.
Frequently asked questions
What is HDS certification?
It is the certification that any host of personal health data acting on behalf of others must hold in France (article L.1111-8 of the French Public Health Code). It is issued by an accredited body against requirements approved by ministerial order.
Is My International Therapy itself HDS-certified?
No, the certification applies to the host. The website, the dashboard and their data are hosted in the European Union by an HDS-certified host, named in our legal notice.
How can I check that a host is HDS-certified?
The French digital health agency (ANS) publishes the official list of certified hosts, showing the activities covered and the body that issued each certificate.
Does HDS certification replace the GDPR?
No. It comes on top of the GDPR, which applies to all health data in the European Union, and each therapist remains responsible for their patients’ data.
References
- French Public Health Code, article L.1111-8 (opens in a new tab) (Légifrance, in French)
- Order of 26 April 2024 on the HDS certification requirements (opens in a new tab) (Légifrance, in French)
- Certification of health data hosts (opens in a new tab) (Agence du numérique en santé, in French)
- List of HDS-certified hosts (opens in a new tab) (Agence du numérique en santé, in French)
- General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (opens in a new tab) (EUR-Lex)
Are you a therapist?
Browse our therapists directory or join our network.
The name and contact details of our host are given in our legal notice.