Pierre-Paul Yale

Pierre-Paul Yale began his career as a clinical psychiatrist at the Sainte-Croix Hospital in the Town of Drummondville, Québec, from 1980 to 1991 and during that period, he also taught at Sherbrooke University in the psychiatry department.^[1] Before the start of his clinical career, he was the representative of the residents of the Association of Psychiatrists of Canada from 1977 to 1978, and was elected a board director of the association in 1979. He also became the Canadian Deleguate of the American Psychiatric Association in 1980, then member of the committee of the research centre of Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital in 1982. During that period, he continued his career as a psychiatrist at Ste-Croix Hospital in Drummondville, Quebec, from 1980 to 1990 and in 1989, he was named director of their psychiatry department.^[1]

Since 1980, he had been professor at the department of psychiatry of Sherbrooke University, and later, vice-president of Informatique Medicale Corporation, and vice-president of Societe Miniere Uniquartz Corporation.^[1] From 1982 to 1983, he was board director of the Ste-Croix Foundation. He wrote various publications on management systems, therapy treatments and medical education in relation to psychiatry.^[1]

In 1983, Yale began a part-time practice at Ste-Therese Hospital of Shawinigan and conceived a software management product that was sold by his enterprise to the hospital for $$160,000, as he was previously an engineer before graduating. This amount included all ownership and future revenues for the Ste-Therese Hospital ^[19] Yale's medical software allowed the digital management of the medical files of each patients; a model which would later be implemented by other companies in the healthcare industry. The contract was later the subject of an enquiry by Senator Thérèse Lavoie-Roux, at the time Minister of Health and Social Services under Premier Robert Bourassa.^[20]

The investigating commissioner found no irregularities on Yale's part and was fully exonerated, as his software was an innovation and caused misunderstandings by journalists.^[21] Yale was named the vice-presidency of Purkinje Inc and Développement Purkinje Inc, which were, at the time, expanding their medical software offerings to international markets.^[21]

Yale continued his scientific work in 1991 with the Purkinje software company to help them implement their software to clinics and other hospitals, completely replacing paper files with software management tools.^[21] He left Purkinje in 2001 and continued his full time work as a psychiatrist in the psychiatry department of CSSS Haut-Richelieu Rouville Hospital, and in 2010 he was named board director and co-chief of psychiatry for CISSS de la Montérégie-Centre until 2018. He retired as a psychiatrist in April 2022.^[22][23]

Yale was vice-president of the Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec under President Yves Lamontagne, later President of the Collège des médecins du Québec.^[24] The association has a membership of about 1,200 psychiatrists, and is affiliated with the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec. Yale was involved with mental health services programs with Quebec government, and criticized the government's reorganization plan regarding its management of mental health services, citing issues with its speed of execution, and signed an open letter with 200 experts to bring awareness to the issue.^[25][26]

In 1993, Yale became a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and received his fellowship in San Francisco, California, on May of the same year.^[21] In 2004, Dr. Pierre-Paul Yale represented the Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec on the Experts Committee of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, to be presented to the Premier of Quebec, Philippe Couillard.^[27] The committee was involved in advising the government in relation to the organization of mental health services by the Ministry, such as suicide prevention.

Yale married to Carole Grenier, daughter of Dorilas Grenier and Marie-Anna Dodier, on June 14, 1975.^[1] They became the parents of two daughters, Caroline and Melina Yale.^[1] Dr. Yale is also a member of the Association des psychiatre du Québec, of the Association des psychiatres du Canada, of the American Psychiatric Association, and of the Association des medecins de la langue francaise du Canada.^[1] His sister Carole Yale is a lawyer and his brother, Dr. Jean-Francois Yale, is an endocrinologist, professor of medicine at McGill University and director of the Metabolic Day Center at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal.^[28][2]

Throughout his career, his brother Jean-Francois became president and Chairman of the Clinical and Scientific department of the Canadian Diabetes Association, President and Chairman of the Expert Committee, member of the Steering Committee with the CDA, and published about 250 publications as a senior researcher.^[29][30] He is board director of Diagnos, an AI medical software company using big data, listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.^[31] Yale is also a public speaker, senior research scientist, lead researcher, professor of endocrinology at McGill University, and department award recipient by Rector Yves Martin.^{[32][33][34][35][36]}