Philippe Combessie

What role does the general practitioner in France play among cancer patients during the initial treatment phase with intravenous chemotherapy? A qualitative study

Abstract Background: France’s ethical and legal principles place general practitioners (GPs) at the forefront of cancer patient management, coordination, and follow-up. The objective of this study was to determine the actual role of GPs in the follow-up phase as well as patient perspectives on their GPs. Method: A multidisciplinary group of researchers conducted this qualitative study based on in-depth interviews of 50 patients managed at two cancer centres. A content analysis method was used to analyse the study data. Results: According to the patients interviewed for this study, their GPs were relatively ineffective at managing medical problems related to cancer by comparison with their oncologists. Nonetheless, the patients had all consulted their GPs during the interval between the diagnosis and our interview. Reasons given for consulting their GPs included administrative matters, psychological support, reassurance, and advice, but also to a lesser extent, medical management. Conclusion: Patients’ perspectives called attention to two aspects of the role of GPs in the French healthcare system: (a) the importance of GPs within an effective system for managing cancer patients, and (b) for some patients, GPs’ relative lack of medical skill compared to oncologists.

Nos interstícios das sociedades ocidentais em mutação, a que tipo de comunidade a pluriparceria sexual contemporânea diz respeito?

Political struggles today are marked by people who claim a particular sexual orientation. If they can obtain recognition for their individual rights from guidelines that are developed within the framework of a circumscribed sexuality at the center of a relationship dyadic, it goes otherwise with regard to collective sexual practices, that appear to remain on the dark. In Inuit societies where such practices were still common in the early 20th century, Mauss developed the concept of sexual communism. This concept applies to relationships that take place between the practitioners of these forms of unorthodox sexuality. The analysis of the modalities under which its members are and keeps or not their relationship, allows at least understand the issues, the limits and margins of maneuver around such practices and to ask to what extent these results the establishment of a form of community.

La ville et la prison une troublante cohabitation

Ville et prison semblent indissociables ; pourtant, leurs relations sont faites de tensions et de rejets reciproques. Si ce couple perdure, n’est-ce pas, pour beaucoup, en raison d’ambiguites dont on neglige volontiers de chercher les fondements ?