The French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS) aims to establish a sentinel network of private laboratory practitioners to continuously monitor antibiotic susceptibility in infections diagnosed in private practice. The Labville network consists of a sample of 70 private clinical laboratories selected via simple random sampling in each region that have agreed to make their data available to the InVS on a long-term basis. This continuous surveillance involving multiple private clinical laboratories requires the automatic collection and processing of information, notably through data extraction and remote transmission. In the absence of an equivalent electronic surveillance system in Europe, a feasibility study was conducted in 2002. This report presents the results of data extraction from 6 pilot LABMs representing the diversity of automated bacteriology equipment within the network. The feasibility study demonstrated that the availability and quality of data from the LABMs enabled the application of a standardized definition of antibiotic resistance. The difficulty encountered in data extraction stemmed from the large number of software vendors and the monopoly they exert over laboratory information systems. The knowledge and experience gained by the LABMs during the feasibility study will enable the drafting of the specifications, which is an essential element in the search for a sustainable solution for the automatic extraction and transfer of data from the Labville network to the InVS. (R.A.)