HealthGuard: a hospital pharmacist’s project to put patients in control of their medical records

The problem is well documented. When patients read their clinical notes, one in five reports finding a mistake, and 42% of them consider it serious, according to a US study of more than 22,000 patients. At hospital admission, errors in medication histories occur in up to 67% of cases. After discharge, the hospital summary is available at the first follow-up visit in only 12% to 34% of cases. And according to the World Health Organization, medication discrepancies affect almost every patient who moves across transitions of care.

Public tools exist. In France, every citizen has a Mon espace santé account and a shared medical record. But, Sébastien Saliques explains, few people use them before they have a medical history, hospital data often don’t reach them, and many professionals, lacking card readers in consultation rooms, fall back on email.

HealthGuard’s idea fits in one sentence, the one its founder uses: “we no longer share a document, we share access to a document”. A document sent by email is a copy: nobody can say who still has it, and it can’t be taken back. With HealthGuard, the patient keeps their documents in one place and grants access instead, to a person, a team or an institution, for part of their record and for a set time, from an hour to a year. Every access is traced, and the patient can revoke it at any time.

Under the hood, according to the project:

• documents are encrypted before being stored;
• storage is decentralised, on the IPFS network, rather than on a single server;
• a blockchain records only the access permissions and their history, never a medical document.

The founder’s argument is security by design: with no central store of documents, there is no single place to attack, and access rules don’t depend on trusting one institution.

HealthGuard is an alpha. It is not available to patients yet. Before it is, it will have to show how it meets the rules that govern health data, from the GDPR to certified health data hosting in France.

The context is moving its way. The European Health Data Space regulation, in force since March 2025, gives patients fast and free access to their own electronic health data across the European Union.

Bringing a patient’s medical documents together in one place is at the heart of MyTwin. Kevin’s story shows what medical reports a patient can’t make sense of cost in worry and waiting, and our guide to keeping a personal health record explains how to organise and share one safely. HealthGuard’s access model would let the records created in MyTwin be shared this way, possibly without patients even noticing the technology underneath.