2024-02-10 19:00:00
Since she took on the role of president of the Academy of Medicine in January 2024, child psychiatrist Catherine Barthélémy has been divided between Paris and Tours.
You are the first woman to president of the Academy of Medicine. What does this mean to you?
“It marks the evolution of medicine in our country, which is increasingly feminine, including at the level of university teaching. This feminization is also representative of developments in our society in general. It is a wish of all academicians that there are more and more women in the authorities. I’m the first, I guess in a long series! »
When you started medical school, you were one of the few women. Was it an additional challenge?
“It’s always a challenge. It is very important to make your voice heard, and also to enlighten our male colleagues on the abilities of women to assume responsibilities. For example, it was a challenge for me when I became a professor to teach first-year medical students: there were 1,300 students in the amphitheater of the Faculty of Science in Tours. I had to hold on, for the students to hear, understand, and above all accept that I was a woman, it was something new. At the time there were very many boys; today, they are a minority. »
What pushed you to pursue medicine, even though you did not come from a medical background and women were still rare in this profession?
“I come from a teaching background. It was a profession in my family that was not considered. I had a model, an encounter in my very young childhood, with a family friend who was a pediatrician and who practiced school medicine. She told me not only how she became a doctor, but also her practice, prevention, through vaccines, health education: the annual medical examination in schools, at the time, made it possible to prevent certain serious illnesses. »
Catherine Barthélémy, in her office in Tours.
© Photo NR, Mariella Esvant
A practice of medicine that is not just technical… Which has stayed with you.
“I remained attached to this practice of medicine close to our society. Already during my training as a pediatrician, I had to go to maternal and child protection centers (PMI), it was outside the hospital, in the city. I was already interested in anything that can handicap a child’s development. I had organized meetings with mothers, in the Sanitas neighborhoods in Tours, at Morier in Joué-lès-Tours, to do prevention. »
During your presidency, what would you like to print?
“The academy’s mission is to enlighten the government on subjects and priorities that concern health and prevention. The overall development of the child within this ecosystem that is the family, and more broadly society, is a central subject for me. In most cases it is easy, but for all children who have vulnerabilities, we must spread a culture of early detection in our clinic for very young children, particularly in all difficulties linked to communication, to the interaction. »
With you, psychiatry is also represented at the presidency of the Academy of Medicine. The opportunity to give more visibility to the discipline that is sometimes unloved by the general public and future doctors?
“Psychiatry is an extraordinary medical discipline, which addresses people in suffering, and whose illness requires a very respectful relationship with others, in the secrecy and privacy of the person, to be understood. It is an extremely noble specialty. I will do everything to support her. »
You hung up your blouse in 2014, but you remain in touch with the field…
“I support teams who are not hospitable at a medical-educational institute in Paris, a special education and home care service for toddlers in Nantes, and of course I also remain president honorary of the Association for Research on Autism and Prevention of Maladaptations (Arapi), the family association which was created in Tours in 1983. This link is essential for me. »
In your journey, families have always mattered a lot.
“Families have always been very supportive. I had confidence in them. They were also my guests during the inaugural session at the Academy of Medicine. I kind of took them with me. »
bio
> 1946: birth in Adriers (Vienna).
> 1972: medical thesis in Tours (Indre-et-Loire).
> 1978-1979: entry into a laboratory at the Collège de France.
> 1983: participates in the creation of the Association for research on autism and the prevention of maladjustments (Arapi).
> 1990: science thesis, “Behavior, neurophysiology and biochemistry of autism”.
> 1992: becomes Professor of Medicine and takes charge of the autism team within the Inserm 930 Imaging and Brain unit in Tours.
> 1994-1998: vice-dean of the University of Medicine of Tours.
> 2023: elected vice-president of the National Academy of Medicine. She will take over as president in 2024.
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