3P-S1-4

INFORMATIC NETWORK AS A TOOL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SOCIEDAD ARGENTINA DE PEDIATRIA

Blanco O, Melamud A, Otero P

Argentina

In the year 1996 the Argentine Pediatric Society thought that informatics would be a practical tool of communication with its members. The first idea was to create a BBS (Bulletin Board System) with information oriented to pediatricians and allied professionals, but this was discarded because it would only involve physicians living in Buenos Aires (capital city), so it was proposed that Internet would be the media used for this massive communication, although at that time in Argentina, Internet access was not nationwide, it was expected that it would reach every household in the country in the forecoming years.

The website was initially launched on January 1997 at https://www.sap.org.ar and its main objectives were: to provide access to the society resources online (publications, guidelines, meetings, cme, etc). We soon realized that Spanish speaking pediatricians found the information posted at the website useful but needed a ��space�� where they could communicate with other professionals and share experiences.

As an answer to this need the Argentine Pediatric Society created discussion lists for information exchange through electronic mail.

Currently, there are 14 different discussions lists oriented to several pediatric specialties, such as: ambulatory pediatrics, internal medicine, neonatology, intensive care, medical informatics.

The experience , so far has been satisfactory, since spanish-speaking pediatricians rely on the information that they share with colleagues and find it useful, especially in rural areas where acceding to medical technology is somewhat difficult.