Key points
- Nice counted 357,737 residents in the 2023 census, 23.4% of them aged 65 or over, and 540 general practitioners and 447 dentists in INSEE's 2025 inventory.1
- The CNIL's reference framework for medical practices allows patient files to be kept for twenty years from the last care, five in the active base and fifteen in a separate archive.5
- Any provider hosting a practice's patient files remotely must be an approved or certified health data host under Article L. 1111-8 of the Code de la santé publique.5
- The CNIL considers an impact assessment and a data protection officer necessary for group practices sharing one information system from 10,000 patients a year.5
- wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with your clinic.10
Summary
A practice between Nice and Èze can use AI for notes and patient messages under GDPR and French health data rules, with a person approving every message and the doctor signing every note. Patient files must sit with an approved or certified health data host, and the CNIL's framework for medical practices sets twenty years as the keeping period.
Along the coast from Nice to Èze, the practices that stay full answer a hotel guest's message within the hour and a resident's by morning, and their doctors sign every file before the evening. The patient base joins an older resident population with a coast lined with hotels, and French rules on health data hosting shape the software behind both.1
Part of the HAS hub, with the framework explained, a readiness checklist and 7 guides.
See it in your clinicThirty minutes on your own patients and doctors.
Request a demoSee a hotel guest's evening message to a Riviera practice become an approved booking with a deposit in euros, in fifteen minutes with a clinician who uses wai daily.
| Body or rule | What it requires | What to ask | How wai meets it |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNIL framework for medical practices, retention | Twenty years from the last care, five active and fifteen archived | How are retention and archiving set | Retention set with each practice, records hosted in France |
| Code de la santé publique, Article L. 1111-8 | Remote hosting of patient files only by an approved or certified health data host | Which host holds the files, under which certificate | Hosting set up with your practice under French rules |
| CNIL framework, impact assessment | Assessment and data protection officer for shared systems from 10,000 patients a year | What will the vendor supply for our assessment | Subprocessors named with 30 days notice, every action logged |
| EU AI Act, Article 50 | People told when an AI system interacts with them directly | Can any AI reply reach a patient unapproved | AI drafts, a person at the practice approves and sends |
| Mon espace santé | The patient's national medical file and secure messaging | How do signed documents reach the patient's file | Built to connect, set up with each practice |
The private care market from Nice to Èze
INSEE's 2023 census counted 357,737 residents in Nice, with 55,536 aged 65 to 79 and 28,111 aged 80 or over.1 Its 2025 inventory lists 540 general practitioners, 447 dentists, 417 psychologists and 152 pharmacies in the city, and 163 hotels with 10,919 rooms on 1 January 2026.1
East along the corniches, the towns are small and many hotels are five-star. Èze had 2,144 residents in 2023 and seven hotels, three of them five-star.2 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat had 1,531 residents and two five-star hotels with 171 rooms between them.3
The rules a practice from Nice to Èze works under
The Agence régionale de santé Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur steers health provision across the region, the Alpes-Maritimes included.7 The CNIL supervises personal data, and its reference framework for medical and paramedical practices is the working guide for a private practice.65
Under that framework, a practice may keep patient data for twenty years from the last care, five years in the active base from the last entry in the file, then fifteen years archived on a separate medium with equivalent security.5 Where patient files are reached remotely and hosted by a provider, such as the software publisher or an online booking platform, that provider must be an approved or certified health data host under Article L. 1111-8 of the Code de la santé publique.5 For group practices sharing one information system, the CNIL considers an impact assessment and a data protection officer necessary from 10,000 patients a year.5
Article 50 of the EU AI Act requires AI systems designed to interact directly with people to let them know they are dealing with AI.8 At wai, the AI drafts and a person at the practice approves and sends every message.
wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with your clinic. wai is built to meet France's HDS health data hosting requirements for clinics in Nice to Èze.10 Mon espace santé gives each patient a medical file built on the DMP and a secure messaging service built on MSSanté.9 wai is built to connect to Mon espace santé. We set up your clinic's connection with you.
The languages Riviera patients write in
INSEE puts the immigrant share of the Alpes-Maritimes at 15.1% in 2020 and 2021, with descendants of immigrants a further 15.6%, and names the department among the border departments above the national level, on the Italian frontier.4
wai works in any language.11 A reply is drafted in the language the message arrived in, and the secretary approves it before it is sent.
What a demo shows from Nice to Èze
The demo opens on a general practice in Beaulieu-sur-Mer. At 19:10 a guest at a Cap Ferrat hotel writes on WhatsApp asking whether a doctor can see her son with a fever before their flight from Nice tomorrow, and an email from a resident of the Port quarter in Nice asks to move a Monday follow-up.
wai reads the doctors' busy times from Google Calendar, Outlook or Apple Calendar, finds an 8:15 slot for the guest and a Wednesday slot for the resident, and drafts both replies. The secretary approves them, the guest pays a deposit in euros through the practice's own Stripe account and receives a confirmation, a receipt and an intake questionnaire.
In the consultation, after the patient agrees to the ambient note, the note and a letter for the family's doctor at home are drafted while the doctor talks, and the doctor signs both. The log keeps each message, draft, approval and signature, ready to export.10
For health systems, insurers and public bodies on the Côte d'Azur
Hospital groups, mutuelles and public bodies in the Alpes-Maritimes can commission a system built on wai for one pathway, such as care for visitors, with records hosted in France, clinician sign-off on every note and data and exit rights fixed in the contract. Read more on the page for health systems and governments.
Where to start
First, ask that hosts patient files for its health data host certificate under Article L. 1111-8, and set retention to the CNIL's twenty years.5 Second, if several doctors share one system, count the patients seen last year against the 10,000 threshold for an impact assessment.5 Third, add a consent line for the ambient note to the intake form, using the consent form template.
Then count last season's messages by hour, separating residents from hotel guests, and bring them to a fifteen-minute demo. wai's prices sit on the pricing page.
Bring a week of high-season messages from residents and hotel guests and watch each one drafted for your team to approve.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a Nice practice keep patient files?
The CNIL framework allows twenty years from the last care, five in the active base and fifteen archived on a separate medium.5
Does our software provider need HDS certification?
Yes, if it hosts patient files remotely. The CNIL framework requires an approved or certified health data host under Article L. 1111-8.5
Does a group practice in Nice need an impact assessment?
The CNIL considers one necessary, with a data protection officer, for practices sharing one information system from 10,000 patients a year.5
Who oversees health provision on the Côte d'Azur?
Where would our records be hosted?
wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with your clinic.10
Sources
- 1INSEE, 2026Dossier complet, commune de Nice (06088)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 2INSEE, 2026Dossier complet, commune d'Èze (06059)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 3INSEE, 2026Dossier complet, commune de Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (06121)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 4INSEE, 2023Part des immigrés et des descendants d'immigrés par département en 2020-2021Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 5CNIL, 2020Référentiel relatif aux traitements de données à caractère personnel destinés à la gestion des cabinets médicaux et paramédicaux (CNIL, copy published by the Conseil national de l'Ordre des médecins)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 6CNIL, 2026Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés, official website (archived copy read 15 Oct 2026, live site under maintenance)Read 15 October 2026Read source
- 7ARS Paca, 2026Agence régionale de santé Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, official websiteRead 15 October 2026Read source
- 8EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, the Artificial Intelligence ActRead 15 October 2026Read source
- 9G_NIUS, Agence du numérique en santé, 2026Mon espace santé, regulation profileRead 15 October 2026Read source
- 10wai, 2026Security at waiRead 15 October 2026Read source
- 11wai, 2026wai changelog, intake answered by voice in any languageRead 15 October 2026Read source
Every guest answered within the hour and every file signed by evening.
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