Vincent Jacquelinet
CEO
Hana Chellaoua
Founding Marketing Intern
6 to 8 minutes
When everything is going well, we rarely think about our health. We seek medical advice when something changes, when a symptom appears, when a concern sets in.
But between the moment a disease begins to develop… and the moment it becomes visible, years can pass. It is precisely in this silent interval that prevention comes into play, and that a health prevention check-up truly makes sense.
What is health prevention?
People talk a lot about prevention… but concretely, what is it about?
Health prevention brings together all actions aimed at reducing the risk of disease or limiting its consequences.
Its goal is simple: to preserve your health capital by identifying risks as early as possible, ideally before the first symptoms even appear.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it is:
“the set of measures aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of diseases, accidents and disabilities”. (1)
Today, this issue is more relevant than ever: according to the WHO and the OECD, around 30 to 40 % of premature deaths (before age 75) could be avoided through effective primary prevention actions. (2)
Prevention is not limited to “good habits”
Prevention is often associated with lifestyle habits: eating a balanced diet, playing sports, sleeping well. This is essential, but it is only part of the issue.
Prevention also means:
screening: to detect certain conditions early;
regular monitoring: to adjust over time;
and less visible factors such as stress, mental health or isolation.
It is based on a holistic view of health: physical, mental and social.
The three levels of prevention: a continuous logic
To understand how it applies, three levels of prevention are distinguished, which intervene at different moments in the health journey:
Primary prevention
Preventing the onset of diseases by acting on risk factors. (3)
Examples: vaccination, physical activity, balanced diet.
Secondary prevention
Detecting a disease as early as possible, often before symptoms. (3)
Examples: screening for cancer, diabetes or hypertension.
Tertiary prevention
Limiting complications and improving quality of life for people already affected. (3)
Examples: follow-up after a heart attack, rehabilitation, support for chronic diseases.
These three levels do not oppose each other, they complement each other and are part of an ongoing approach throughout life.
The evolution of health systems toward better prevention
Across the world, health systems are evolving in the same direction:
intervene earlier
monitor better over time
personalize care pathways
Why? Because chronic diseases (diabetes, cancers, cardiovascular diseases) are weighing more and more heavily. And above all, because today we know that early action can truly change the course of a disease.
Initiatives that are proving their worth
Several countries have already built solid prevention systems:
United Kingdom : the NHS Health Check program (40–74 years old) makes it possible to detect one case of hypertension every 27 appointments and one case of diabetes every 110, directly contributing to earlier diagnosis of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. (4)
Germany : Check-up 35 integrates these checkpoints directly into the care pathway, covered by insurance. This has made it possible to significantly increase the detection of certain conditions: +56 % for hypertension, +69 % for diabetes and +224 % for lipid disorders, according to a study conducted on more than 51,000 patients between 2019 and 2023. (5)
Nordic countries : some countries such as Finland devote up to 6.4 % of their health budget to prevention, compared with 3.9 % in France. Sweden is also above the European average (5.5 %), illustrating a more structured and prioritized strategy on these issues. (6)
And what about France in all this?
After this international overview, let's zoom in on France, often recognized for the quality of its care delivery, but which is still criticized for taking too long to position itself effectively on prevention and screening actions.
Despite a prevention budget of around 5.2 billion euros in 2024, results in prevention and screening remain limited. (7)
The Cour des comptes (public institution responsible for overseeing the use of state and Social Security funds) points in particular to insufficient progress, especially in the face of long-term conditions. (8)
Screening rates remain generally low or stagnant, as with:
colorectal cancer screening reached 30.7 % in 2024–2025, still far from the European target of 45 % (9)
that for diabetes remains around 46 %, a level stable for several years. (9)
The picture is clear and quantified
12 million French people are affected by a chronic disease recognized as a long-term condition (ALD) in 2021, representing nearly 18 % of the population, and this figure continues to rise. ALDs are serious and costly conditions (diabetes, COPD, cancers, heart diseases...) that entitle patients to 100 % coverage by Social Security. (10)
These conditions absorb 52 billion euros per year in medical and socio-economic costs, for just 7 major diseases. (10)
Underused screenings: participation rates in organized programs (breast, colorectal, cervical) remain below targets, which delays diagnoses and increases the burden of care.
The problem is not so much financial (prevention accounts for only 4 % of health spending) (11) as it is cultural and organizational. These actions remain too isolated, too little visible in patients' daily lives.
My Prevention Checkup: an initial response
Launched in 2023 by the Ministry of Health and funded by the Health Insurance system, the initiative “My Prevention Checkup” offers personalized assessments with healthcare professionals (general practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, or midwives)(12), including:
a questionnaire;
an exchange;
and a few basic examinations.
Today, the results are
1,500 participating organizations: health centers, private practices, and even CPTS (Territorial Professional Health Communities).
more than 100,000 checkups completed as part of this experiment, scheduled through 2027.
This is an important step forward.
But on the ground, the reality is more mixed
In practice, setting up prevention checkups on a large scale remains complex.
The first barrier: medical time.
In France, a general practitioner sees an average of 20 to 25 patients per day, with appointments often lasting only 15 to 20 minutes. (13)
Under these conditions, fitting in a full prevention checkup (which can sometimes take 30 to 45 minutes) becomes difficult without thoroughly reorganizing appointments.
The second limitation: access to care.
Today, 5.7% of the French population lives in areas considered under-resourced, even medical deserts. (14)
In these areas, the issue is no longer just prevention, but access to regular follow-up care.
Finally, there is a more diffuse, but equally fundamental, barrier: prevention is not yet second nature.
Most patients still seek care when a problem arises, and many miss out on screening or follow-up services that are nevertheless available.
How to transform prevention with digital tools
Whether during consultations dedicated in part or exclusively to prevention, as with prevention check-ups, a large part of medical time is still devoted to collecting basic information: medical history, lifestyle habits, risk factors, treatments, family context.
This step is essential, but it often takes over the rest of the consultation. In the end, the doctor has less time to talk, understand the patient's situation, and support them in their decisions.
The challenge is not to eliminate this phase, but to organize it better in advance. And this is precisely where digital technology can be a valuable help.
Concretely, the patient can complete a prevention questionnaire before the appointment. This already allows them to reflect on their situation and become more actively involved in their prevention journey.
Once this information is structured, the healthcare professional no longer starts the consultation “from scratch”. They spend less time asking administrative or repetitive questions, and more time analyzing, explaining, and deciding with the patient.
In this approach, digital medical assistants such as Aldebaran's make it possible to structure these questionnaires in advance and facilitate patient follow-up.
The objective is twofold:
save time for medical teams;
improve coverage of prevention pathways, including in areas where access to care is more limited.
The approach developed by Aldebaran fits directly into standard medical consultations. Thanks to advance preparation and patients' willingness to answer prevention questions, doctors can more easily address certain topics that are sometimes rarely explored during consultations.
Since January 1, 2025, more than 73% of patients using the solution have agreed to answer prevention questionnaires, including patients already being followed by their doctor.
This approach also makes perfect sense within groupings of healthcare professionals in the same area. This is the case for the Territorial Professional Health Community (CPTS) of Pays-Haut, an area of about 90,000 inhabitants, where nearly 18,000 people do not have a primary care doctor.
We also gathered feedback from the CPTS of Pays-Haut on using Aldebaran to improve patient screening and follow-up. (Find their use case here)
Aldebaran's medical assistant thus helps better organize patient care and follow-up, streamline exchanges, and strengthen prevention efforts.
(1) French National Authority for Health (HAS). “General overview of good practice recommendations in health.” 2018.
(2) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “Health at a Glance 2023 – Avoidable mortality.” 2023.
(3) MSD Manuals. “Three levels of prevention.”
(4) NHS (National Health Service). “NHS Health Check.”
(5) Hajek, A. et al. “Effectiveness of Check-up 35 for detecting targeted diseases in Germany.” PMC (PubMed Central), 2025.
(6) DREES. “International comparisons of prevention spending and risk behaviours.” Factsheet 33, Health spending in 2023 – 2024 edition.
(7) National Assembly. “Budget annex – Health.” 2026.
(8) Court of Audit. “Prevention and early management of diabetes.”
(9) DREES. “Better understand and assess the management of chronic diseases.”
(10) IFRAP. “Long-term conditions (ALD): €112 billion in spending per year.”
(11) Asterès. “French Care - Prevention.” 2023.
(12) Ministry of Health. “My Prevention Check-up launches a campaign.”
(13) Le Quotidien du Médecin. “22 consultations a day, averaging 17 minutes: how do general practitioners work?”
(14) DREES. “In 2018, areas undersupplied with general practitioners.” Studies and Results, 2021.
