European and American scientists meeting at Annecy (France) on December 7 to 9 to present their latest data on Atherosclerosis and Infections will inaugurate a novel form of communication. This international meeting, organized by the Marcel Mérieux Foundation and INSERM with the participation of Pasteur Mérieux Connaught, will offer summaries of the presentations and discussions, every day on the Internet. The summaries, in English, will enable the international scientific community to follow the discussions. This innovative form of scientific communication is offered by INSERM ( the french national Institute of health and medical research) at http://www.inserm.fr/athero/mi
A whole body of scientific information is already available on this site, such as an exhaustive list of references on the subject (nearly 300 summaries of articles), the posters presented at the meeting, and direct links to other sites. A discussion forum is also open to specialists.
Created specially for the meeting, the electronic platform for information and dialogue will not disappear after the end of the meeting on December 9. A permanent group will continuously update the site with new scientific information (references, other meetings, etc.).
This initiative is part of a policy adopted by INSERM four years ago to facilitate information exchanges and to encourage dialogue between different scientific communities. The Atherosclerosis and Infections site is the latest in a series launched by INSERM on ethical matters in biomedicine and health (http://www.inserm.fr/ethique), genetic and cellular therapy (http://www.inserm.fr/biotheque), prions (http://www.inserm.fr/prions), and psychiatry (http://psydoc-fr.broca.inserm.fr/).