107 pediatricians among the 1400 members of the French ambulatory pediatric association, AFPA (Association Française de Pédiatrie Ambulatoire) were involved in this survey.To belong to the PARI network, pediatricians have to use the same software, Axi5-Infansoft (developed by CompuGroup Medical, Nanterre, France) for electronic medical record of children. The pediatricians were trained to the use of point of care tests and to the infectious diagnoses (otitis, pharyngitis, varicella, bronchiolitis, influenza, pneumonia, etc..). The study population consisted of all children under 16 years of age from the patient population for which an infectious disease was diagnosed.
Many ambulatory networks are mainly based on diagnoses made by first-line physicians not specifically trained to join the network. Here we aim to set up a surveillance network on pediatric infectious diseases with an investment in teaching with specific trainings of participating pediatricians, increasing in use of point of care tests, and automated data extraction from the computers of the pediatricians.