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Intake tools compared
| Criterion | Word / PDF | Google Forms | Brand questionnaire | Simplycure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HDS hosting | No | No | Varies | Yes |
| GDPR compliant | Partly | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI summary | None | None | Limited | Mistral AI |
| Commercial independence | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Import what you already use | N/A | Manual | Manual | AI, 1 minute |
| Cost | €0 | €0 | Included if you are a client | Included |
Why Google Forms is not HDS-compliant
This is the most common blind spot among practitioners. Google Forms is GDPR compliant: Google provides a DPA, confidentiality commitments, a contractual framework. But GDPR is not HDS.
HDS (Hébergement de Données de Santé, health data hosting) is a specific accreditation issued by the ANS, the French digital health agency. It requires an annual audit, a formal incident procedure, and a chain of subprocessors that are all certified. Google is not HDS-certified for Forms.
In practical terms: if a patient files a complaint, or the CNIL starts asking questions, the argument "I assumed it was compliant because it is Google" will not hold. Responsibility for the processing stays with the practitioner, as data controller under GDPR.
That matters especially for functional medicine doctors and naturopaths who collect sensitive data: medical history, medication, psychological symptoms. The risk is not hypothetical. It is invisible right up until it is not.
Why brand questionnaires are not neutral
The Therascience, Pileje, Copmed and Bioanalysis questionnaires are often clinically excellent. But they steer interpretation towards the areas that the brand addresses with its own products.
That is neither dishonest nor hidden. It is structural: a tool designed by a brand reflects that brand's way of reading a case. The questions are worded to surface the areas the brand covers commercially.
The problem appears when you walk into a consultation and make recommendations that look neutral while resting on a commercial framing you have never spelled out to the patient. If you prescribe a product from the same brand that supplied the questionnaire, your freedom to prescribe is constrained by a bias you did not choose.
How to import a Word or PDF questionnaire into an HDS tool
This is the practical question everyone asks: do I have to rebuild everything?
With Simplycure, no. Mistral AI reads your existing questionnaire in under a minute:
- You drop in your Word file, your PDF or the URL of a Google Form
- Mistral automatically detects the sections, the answer types and the conditional logic
- You review and adjust any questions it has read wrongly
- The questionnaire goes live, HDS-hosted
No manual data entry. No rebuild. You keep your methodology, you simply change the channel.
Why Mistral AI rather than ChatGPT for the summary
Three reasons, technical and regulatory:
Sovereignty. Mistral is a French AI, based in Europe. Your patient data does not cross the Atlantic. That fits an HDS hosting arrangement, which restricts transfers outside the EU.
No data retention. Mistral does not use your prompts to retrain its models. ChatGPT does so by default unless you explicitly opt out, which is a paid option.
Regulatory consistency. HDS requires a chain of certified subprocessors. Mistral fits into that chain more naturally than US LLMs that depend on US cloud infrastructure.
AI summary and interactive chat
Once your patient has filled the questionnaire in, the Simplycure AI generates a clinical summary in 30 seconds: dominant picture, main points to watch, salient signals, lines of investigation.
Beyond the automatic summary, you can prompt your own questionnaire through a dedicated AI chat: "what are the main points to watch?", "is there a correlation between the digestive symptoms and sleep?", "which signals point towards chronic fatigue?".
The chat is available to the practitioner only. The patient never has access to it. When you spot key elements, you turn them into patient notes in one click.
Why we built this
Last Friday I spent two hours with a naturopath in Lyon. Her typical Monday morning: Google Form, copy and paste into Excel, read through 150 answers, take notes by hand, cross-check against her decision tree. An hour of prep per patient. She has been doing it for three years.
She is not an isolated case. 80% of practitioners in integrative health lose cognitive time on the same task before every appointment.
The real problem is not the task. It is that no tool covered all three requirements at once: HDS compliance, commercial independence, AI summary. Word covers independence, Google Forms covers ease of use, brand questionnaires cover clinical rigour. None covers all three.
Simplycure Questionnaire is our answer. HDS-hosted by default, a French AI for the summary, and no brand anywhere in the loop.
FAQ
Why is Google Forms not HDS-compliant if Google has a DPA?
Google's DPA covers GDPR, not HDS. HDS is a specific French accreditation, issued by the ANS, which requires an annual audit and a chain of certified subprocessors. Google Forms does not hold it.
What happens if a patient files a complaint about the use of Google Forms?
Responsibility for the data processing falls on the practitioner, as data controller under GDPR. The argument "Google is secure" will not satisfy the CNIL if the tool is not HDS-certified.
Can I keep my current questionnaire?
Yes. Word, PDF and Google Forms files can be imported into Simplycure in under a minute using Mistral AI. No manual data entry, no rebuild.
Does Mistral AI retain patient data?
No. Mistral does not use prompts to retrain its models. That is a contractual and technical commitment, verifiable in the DPA.
Is there a supplement brand in the Simplycure loop?
None. Simplycure is funded solely by its practitioner users. No brand catalogue is built into the product. No product recommendation appears in the summary.
What is the difference between HDS and GDPR?
GDPR sets the general framework for personal data protection. HDS adds a specific layer for health data: accreditation, annual audit, traceability, a chain of certified subprocessors. GDPR alone is not enough for health data.
How much does the questionnaire feature cost?
The intake questionnaire is included in Simplycure at no extra cost.
Which questionnaire templates are available?
Several validated templates are supplied: MSQ (Institute for Functional Medicine), IEDM (Institut Européen de Diététique et Micronutrition), Bioanalysis, Copmed, ADNR for naturopaths, plus the templates from Dr Aurélien Nunez (functional medicine) and Dr Résimont (micronutrition).
Going further
A question, some feedback, a problem with an import? Write to me directly at william@simplycure.com. We iterate fast, and we listen better.
