The High Authority for Health (HAS) publishes a guide dedicated to health partnerships and patient partners. Intended for professionals, establishments, associations and all citizens, this guide offers a clear reference framework and practical benchmarks to support the deployment of these approaches on the ground.
In recent years, initiatives involving patients in the organization and improvement of care have multiplied in France. Many health establishments and care services therefore include the notion of partnership in their organization chart. These practices have shown their effects on the quality of care but also for patients (clinical and psychosocial effects), for teams of professionals and for the quality of research. Although they are increasingly recognized, today they remain dispersed and heterogeneous, with insufficiently harmonized intervention frameworks.
However, the available work and feedback demonstrate that the health partnership produces concrete effects. It contributes to improving the quality and safety of care, strengthening the relevance of decisions, transforming organizations and enriching professional practices. It also promotes the strengthening of patients’ power to act, by legitimizing their words and promoting their experiential knowledge. The partnership thus appears to be a lever for quality, efficiency and democracy in health.
Faced with this development, HAS wanted, through this guide, to respond to this need for harmonization and to propose shared benchmarks to guarantee quality and support its development. This guide is based on a rigorous methodology, combining analysis of scientific and professional work, hearings from numerous stakeholders (hospital federations, associations, institutions) and collection of testimonies of concrete experiences. It was developed by a working group from the HAS commission for the participation and engagement of people (CPEP), then enriched by a proofreading phase involving experts and stakeholders. The objective: to propose a framework that is both robust, shared and directly useful to stakeholders in the field.
Définitions :
Le partenariat en santé est le fait d’agir ensemble pour le bien-être physique, mental et social de chacun, en reconnaissant et en s’appuyant sur la complémentarité des expériences, savoirs et compétences des patients/proches aidants/personnes accompagnées et des professionnels du système de santé, par la co-construction, co-décision, co-mise en œuvre des projets de santé de chacun et de tous. (Savoirs Patients)Le ou la patient(e) partenaire est une personne qui, à partir des savoirs issus de son expérience de vie avec une maladie, un handicap ou toute problématique de santé, y compris dans le domaine de la prévention ou de l’accompagnement d’un proche, entend œuvrer avec des professionnels de santé en vue de l’amélioration du parcours de santé des personnes, de l’organisation des soins, dans le cadre de la formation et des enseignements dédiés aux professionnels ou futurs professionnels de santé, ou dans la recherche en santé.
The health partnership: deciding, building and evaluating together
The guide defines health partnership as an approach based on the recognition of the complementarity between the knowledge of patients and that of professionals. It constitutes the highest level of engagement, going beyond simple consultation with the patient, or even one-off collaboration. The health partnership is necessarily part of a logic of co-decision, co-construction and co-evaluation of actions.
This approach involves real patient participation from the design of projects and assumes a rigorous methodological framework, particularly in “project mode”, in order to avoid symbolic approaches, “alibi” participation or participation limited to a consultative role. The HAS also emphasizes the institutional support that must be provided to create the conditions for a common culture, but also on joint training between health professionals and patents, or even on the necessary clarification of roles.
An operational guide to take action
Designed to be directly usable, the guide is accompanied by a summary and practical sheets. In particular, it offers concrete tools (checklists, methodological benchmarks, examples) to help stakeholders design, manage and evaluate their partnership approaches. HAS thus intends to facilitate the move to action and support the dissemination of quality practices throughout the territory.
Patient partners can intervene mainly in four key areas: care pathways, organization of establishments, training of professionals and health research. Their involvement contributes to improving the quality and safety of care, strengthening the relevance of decisions and better taking into account the lived experience of patients, while promoting their ability to act and get involved in the health system. They may or may not be members of an association agreed with the establishment. They can intervene on a voluntary basis or be paid by the establishment or service. In all cases, they remain subject to the same rules as the professionals with whom they interact during their missions, particularly in terms of confidentiality, professional secrecy and public service neutrality requirements.
Quatre fiches pratiques illustrent la place et le rôle des patients partenaires dans différents domaines : les parcours de soins, dans l’adaptation de l’offre de soins, dans la formation et l’enseignement, et dans la recherche. Rédigées à partir d’interviews d’initiateurs de projets, en établissements de santé et en ville, elles proposent des exemples concrets de partenariats, des conseils pour démarrer ainsi que des contacts et des ressources utiles.
• Health partnership and patient partners. Educational guide and practical sheets, June 30, 2026, High Authority of Health
• Health partnership: structuring and developing the role of patient partners, HAS press release, June 30, 2026
