[Origins of French telemedicine legislation].

After the creation of the european institute of telemedicine on 10 July 1989 at Paul Sabatier university in Toulouse, it became clear that legislation was needed to provide a solid framework for this new medical practice. The French government's decision in 1993 to create an experimental telemedicine network in the Midi-Pyrenees region, bringing together all public and private healthcare establishments, led us to manage telemedicine in much the same way as a hospital department. This resulted in the creation of institutional systems suited to multicenter networking and requiring particular regulations to govern healthcare professionals' responsibilities, financing, data security, and the use of new communication and information technologies.

International concerted action on collaboration in telemedicine: recommendations of the G-8 Global Healthcare Applications Subproject-4.

The main objectives of the G-8 Global Healthcare Applications Subproject-4 (G-8 GHAP-SP-4) were to establish an international concerted action on collaboration in telemedicine, telehealth, and health telematics (hereafter referred in this paper as telemedicine). In order to promote and facilitate the implementation of telemedicine or health telematics networks around the world, it was considered necessary to address certain key issues. Five thematic solution-seeking forums were held between May 1998 and December 1999.

[Child victims of house fires in France. Mortality, morbidity, prevention].

Children injuries by house fires in France are the cause of a severe mortality (sixty deaths in average each year) and of a morbidity for the survival due to smoke toxicity (oxygen deprivation and inhalation of toxic gases--CO and HCN) and to thermal burns. Epidemiological studies show that young children (0 to 4) are specially concerned by this threat and that the deaths occurred more often in some part of France (Nord-Pas-de-Calais Region). A special strategy for this prevention should be applied in France, the same available in USA, Sweden and UK, including information on the behavior one should have with children: never leave them alone and escape with them as soon as possible out of the smoke.