french psychiatry on internet

French Psychiatry on Internet

Dr Jean-Michel THURIN1. International Symposium on Psychiatry and Internet

MUNICH O5.04.2001

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http://psydoc-fr.broca.inserm.fr

Munich 05/04/2001

Psydoc-France is the internet site of the French Federation of Psychiatry (FFP). This Federation brings together all the French scientific societies (To day, 50).

Psydoc-France was opened in February 1996, in the context of a close collaboration between FFP and INSERM (National Institute for Health and Medical Research).

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Initial objectives…

First, offer to the French psychiatrists an easy access to the many scientific journals (one Society - one Journal !), in order to reduce the mental and cultural barriers between practices (public, academic or private) and approaches (psychodynamic, biological, behavioral, etc.)

Linked to this, the main purpose was to boost clinical research in psychiatry which was especially poor in France.

An other aim was to avoid the internet restriction to “one culture with one language”. Psychopathology is essential in the cultural foundations of French psychiatry and most of the clinicians use psychodynamic approach, which differs from “DSMIV culture”

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…new challenges… These aims are still topical. But others emerged. French psychiatrists now appreciate to practice in an

integrative and opened way, and the era of compartmentalization is over.So, Psydoc has became a common frame for exchanges and shared works.

International exchanges have increased, particularly with USA, South America and Maghreb.

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…and social evolutions … Continuing medical training became obligatory for each French

physician. Psychiatry is not only the field of - psychiatrists only - , but more

and more the one of “mental health” workers and general practitioners.

Patients and proxies are becoming “consumers” and even partners in health care.

Within a few years, we entered the new era of “Public health policy” and “Management care”.

Scientific information, strengthened by its quality with rapid access means, is now an important resource for the professionals , and for the users (Cybermedecine).

This situation has generated new responsibilitiesfor the scientific societies.

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/319/7220/1294

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How is the site organized ? Six to twelve persons work for the site. It is divided in domains,

with a person in charge for each one. We try to train every one, so that he could himself modify and

send its own html pages. For example, every day M. T. modifies the “Permanent Journal”,

D.T. the”Site of the Day”, S. K. its column “Humor”, M.V and JM. T the “Scientific Actuality”.

A librarian C.P. joined the team. She helps for the information research in the international data bases and the realization of a French thesaurus compatible with the MeSH (Medline thesaurus).

I carry out the programming of the data bases and of the general organization.

Psydoc-France is now composed of about 3000 html files and six data bases with 30 000 files.

Every day, about 6000 internet surfers search information on the site.

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Main headings : a living interactive workshop

Scientific Associations and Societies Congress announces and proceedings Research Bibliographic data basis CME and Cyberconferences Scientific “Platforms” data bases Health care system Consensus conferences Selected links Information and exchanges with patients and relatives

Personal information General information and documentation

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Scientific Societies

50 scientific societies presented with their aims, the names of their President, General Secretary, Treasurer, their address, and URL of web site when it exists.

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Congress (announces and proceedings)

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Announces by interactive data basis

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Proceedings with video Interviews

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Proceedings with video Interviews

Live broadcast from WPA Jubilee Congress

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All is not composed of video

Abstracts and full communication can be accessed by data basis completed by html pages

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Research Research is an important domain, with on-line reports, information,

and a data base of current programs. We try to incite the research

Groups to present their work on-line, but this objective remains difficult.

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Bibliographic data basis

It is possible to access to the presentation of the main French psychiatric journals .

For twelve of them, it is possible to read their abstracts.

Six of them (Pour la Recherche, Depression, Pluriels, Handicap Letter, Perspectives Psychiatriques, Psychiatrie Française) are accessible in full text.

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CME and Cyberconferences Since February 1998, FFP organizes Cyberconferences (partnership

with Pfizer laboratory). Cyberconferences are a new way of Continuing medical training using

new technologies to do away with geographic and interpersonal distances

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CME and Cyberconferences Since February 2000, each Cybernaut can not only hear and write to

the contributors who present a topic (one to six), but also see them in live . Social interaction is reinforced.

Actually 35 Cyberconferences are available on the site, with more than 70 experts. A data base offers access to the topics, the contributors and the abstract of their communication, with key words.

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CME and Cyberconferences Three Cyberconferences have been realized in live from a congress

(Toronto, Washington, Paris) and even one from the French Department of Health and Social Security

Our objectives are to day the opening of the exchanges with general practitioners and other specialists as well as international exchanges.

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Scientific “platforms” Each platform puts together a structured collection of information

about one specific domain, from bibliographic references, articles and Internet links

Today, five platforms can be consulted on Psydoc-France : Psychotherapies assessment, Stress and immunity, Depression and environment, Psychotherapy of cranial traumas, and Drug addictions.

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Health care system There is actually an important transformation of the health care

system in psychiatry. It is important for everybody to have at one’s disposal information about epidemiology, number of psychiatrists, duration of hospitalization, health and medico-social organizations, laws and regulations, etc.

We put together governmental reports and statistics arranged by agencies and unions.

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Information exchange among psychiatrists and patients

Nearly each day, we receive questions from patients or their relatives by the way of Internet.

These questions are not exactly those that we learned in the lectures and in the books, or even those that are asked during the consulting session.

Patients ask for an information, an advice or an orientation in health care systems.

It is difficult to answer to many of these questions because of the difficulty due to the writing form and to deontological problems.

For instance : “My brother is in the X hospital. He suffers from chronic asthenia. I never could meet anybody of the medical team. Could you give me the address of another psychiatrist or clinic ?”

“I want to consult a specialist of depression in France. Where can I find him ?

Other questions are real case reports So, to answer to the most difficult of these, we have set up a peers group

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Information about illness and treatments

FFP has organized 4 consensus conferences (Schizophrenia, Opiate addictions, child depression and suicide). Their recommendations and reports are published on the site.

We have also published clinical practice recommendations about ECT, antidepressants, an important report about depression…

The information is performed by a data base of selected sites with the description of their content and key words.

So, Psydoc-France is a living data base, using the interaction between the questionersand a large answering group from experts.

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International Exchanges Today, different international openings have been initiated on Psydoc-

France Links with major National Scientific Associations Proceedings of congress between FFP and APA Proceedings of the WPA Jubilee congress organized by France in June 2000 Cyberconferences to which many foreign colleagues participate Information transmitted by email (congress, questions, etc.) Accommodation on the site of texts (WPA) and Journal (Tunisian Journal of

Psychiatry) Exchanges about Honor Codes and Quality Charters Professional texts of UEMS and OMS Etc.

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How can these exchanges progress ?

Real and not only virtual meetings are necessary to initiate and perform exchanges about specific questions.

Common actions are also necessary about these topics. Europe is beginning an important frame work.

Thank you for this international workshop, which is not only virtual and opens the possibility of personal links

french psychiatry on internet

Documents

french psychiatrists

french scientific societies

scientific information

french physician

french thesaurus compatible

scientific journals

scientific actuality

internet site