What is health expertise?

Health expertise, as defined by the Charter of Health Expertise, is a set of activities aimed at informing public decision-makers and supporting their decision-making regarding health and public health safety.

In response to a question posed by a requesting entity (e.g., the Directorate General for Health), Santé publique France provides an opinion, an interpretation, or a recommendation that is as objectively grounded as possible, developed through a critical analysis of the best available evidence and reasoned arguments based on explicit criteria, accompanied by a professional judgment grounded in the experts’ experience.

The Agency’s opinions and recommendations, produced under the Charter of Health Expertise through internal institutional expertise or external collegial expertise, serve as decision-making aids for public authorities.

The decision on how to act on the Agency’s opinions and recommendations rests with the commissioning party that posed the question.

Note: Activities aimed at generating new knowledge—whether through the collection of new data or the secondary analysis of existing data—do not fall under health expertise as defined by the Charter.

What are the principles of health expertise?

The charter on health expertise defines its principles: impartiality, transparency, plurality, and adversarial proceedings. It also specifies the procedures for its implementation, including the selection of health expertise stakeholders, the health expertise process and its relationship with decision-making authority, the concept of conflicts of interest, and the procedures for managing them.

Health expertise at Santé publique France is conducted through internal institutional expertise, carried out by its staff and regular partners, or through external collegial expertise carried out by expert committees.

The advisability of creating an expert committee within Santé publique France is first reviewed by the agency’s Scientific Council. The expert committees are attached to the agency’s directorates, which provide scientific coordination and administrative secretariat support.

Participation in national expert groups

Santé publique France contributes to expert work on public health and health safety at the national level. Staff members contribute by serving as members of committees, commissions, or expert groups, or by being consulted, as part of the process of developing opinions and recommendations. They contribute either in their own capacity based on their scientific and technical expertise or on behalf of the agency to represent it, depending on the specific rules and operating procedures of each of these expert bodies. These various contributions reflect recognition of the agency’s scientific and operational contributions to this work.

At the national level, Santé publique France is an ex officio member of the five commissions of the High Council for Public Health (HCSP). The agency is also an ex officio member of the Technical Commission on Vaccinations (CTV) and the CTV bureau of the High Authority for Health (HAS), with an advisory role: in this context, the agency may be asked to provide or present epidemiological data necessary for the work of this commission.

Staff members of Santé publique France have contributed to the following French expert reports and evaluations (in alphabetical order):

• the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES): 41 in 2025;

• the National Council on AIDS and Hepatitis (CNS): 3 documents finalized in 2023 (including two jointly with ANRS-MIE); 2 in 2025 (including one jointly with ANRS-MIE and HAS);

• the Committee for Monitoring and Anticipating Health Risks (Covars): 14 in 2025;

• the French National Authority for Health (HAS): 19 deliverables finalized in 2025.