[Forensic medicine in the hospital]

The reform of teaching hospitals which integrates all the hospital disciplines has been responsible for the creation of forensic medicine units in hospitals. Several solutions have been proposed; in Lyon this organisation has been set up within the framework of medical emergency units as that is effectively where there are the most forensic problems to solve. This integration is beneficial for our discipline: it is thus possible to set up a permanent service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at the disposal of the justice department and the police, and it opens the possibility of doing extra examinations like X-rays or getting the opinion of a specialist such as an ophthalmologist. But the forensic pathologist in hospital can help his colleagues to draw up a difficult certificate or give advice concerning medical law: it must be remembered that forensic medicine is not only a link between medicine and law in matters of experts' reports or certificates, it also establishes the same link between the legal world and medicine. This integration has allowed the development of clinical forensic medicine and a better understanding of the needs of the general practitioner in this area. This national experience has been broadcast in periodicals such as Journal de médecine légale et Droit médical (Journal of forensic medicine and Medical Law) and books published by Editions A. Lacassagne of which I am in charge.