Professor William Dab, the new Director General of Health, recently noted that of the one hundred objectives associated with the public health bill, thirty-five were quantifiable, one-third were unquantifiable due to the lack of an information system, and another third due to a lack of knowledge. To address these shortcomings, he proposes the creation of a National Institute for Public Health Research and a School of Advanced Studies in Public Health, designed to contribute synergistically to the creation and dissemination of public health knowledge. He also expressed sadness that our health information system is capable of quickly detecting two cases of leptospirosis deep in the Corrèze region, but not an influx of several thousand elderly people into emergency departments. [article excerpt]