Surgery News - January 2009 - (Page 12) 12 OPINION JANUARY 2009 • SURGERY NEWS EDITORIAL Quintessence 2009 ife for the ancient Greeks prevailed through the four classical elements of BY LAZAR J. GREENFIELD, M.D., FACS earth, air, fire, and water. Then Xenocrates and Philostratus posited a fifth element, ether, to represent the cos- L mos. This was the stuff gods are made of, and it loftily defined the universe as a living creature. Plato called the fifth element quintessence, a term later used by Shakespeare in “Hamlet” to define the essential quality of a thing. So as we enter our fifth year of publication, we should think about the quintessence of SURGERY NEWS. It must include our goals: to be timely, by reporting on the most recent papers presented at peer-reviewed meetings; accurate, by fact checking the material presented; comprehensive, by including critiques of the studies by meeting discussants or our editors; relevant, by being pertinent to the practice and science of surgery; and unbiased, by disclosing conflicts of interest and excluding industrial hype or advertorials. NOW AVAILABLE The American College of Surgeons ATLS Program was developed to teach doctors one safe, reliable method for assessing and initially managing the trauma patient. The course teaches an organized approach for evaluation and management of seriously injured patients and offers a foundation of common knowledge for all members of the trauma team. The emphasis is on the critical “first hour” of care, focusing on initial assessment, lifesaving intervention, reevaluation, stabilization, and, when needed, transfer to a trauma center. The 8th edition has been redesigned for readability and to improve comprehension and retention of knowledge. It features new, up-to-date technical content and references and includes a DVD with skills from the course demonstrated in video segments. Price: $100 each. To obtain an ATLS for Doctors Student Course Manual, visit the American College of Surgeons online publication catalog at https://web2.facs.org/timssnet464/acspub/frontpage.cfm?product_class=trauma If these goals are not sufficient to define our essence, we must concede that we are defined by the ultimate goal of quality in all that we print. The “we” includes Elizabeth Wood, the publication editor; and the staff of Elsevier. But we are just half of the equation. The critical half is you, the reader; your satisfaction determines the publication’s success. Of course, advertising is also a critical component. The latest readership scores rate SURGERY NEWS as the second most widely read surgical publication among general surgeons. Informal conversations suggest that our readers find our condensed reporting useful, but what’s missing? What would you like to see, or to see more of ? How do the print and online versions of SURGERY NEWS fit into your desire to stay informed? In fact, the future of major print newspapers is currently in doubt, as evidenced by the bankruptcy announcement by the Chicago Tribune. In October 2008, the Christian Science Monitor announced that it would abandon print except for a small weekly edition. As of April 2009, it will be available mostly online. Many more people are reading the news online, but newspapers have yet to figure out a profitable business model for their online versions. The disappearance of newspapers in print may seem as noteworthy as the loss of the tape recorder, but remember that radio and television only tell you what is happening currently, and magazines or journals take months to bring news to print. It takes a newspaper reporter to follow the paper trail of a shady deal, document kickbacks, and identify conflicts of interest. Therefore, we all have a big stake in this experiment by the Monitor. In science, an exclusively online publication called the Public Library of Science (PLoS ONE) uses peer review, but is not concerned with a paper’s importance to the field. It only judges whether research was done “rigorously and astutely,” allowing subsequent debate and comment to judge its importance. The $1,300 fee to publish an article is waived if funds are not available. Bentham Science Publishers has more than 200 peer-reviewed open-access journals (bentham.org/open). Its individual membership fee of $1,600 provides a 5% discount on the article publication fee of $800, but institutional memberships provide higher discounts. We have selected some reports for online-only publication in SURGERY NEWS as an experiment. Do you have a preference between the print and online versions? Share your opinions with us, and you may wind up in print yourself, free of charge. Effective communication should be two way; otherwise it’s like one hand clapping. As George Bernard Shaw said, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” ■ DR. GREENFIELD is editor in chief of SURGERY NEWS. https://web2.facs.org/timssnet464/acspub/frontpage.cfm?product_class=trauma http://www.bentham.org/open https://web2.facs.org/timssnet464/acspub/frontpage.cfm?product_class=trauma
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Surgery News - January 2009 Surgery News - January 2009 Contents The 20/20 Vision Intent to Prevent News From the College: The Year Ahead Thoracic: Tracheal Triumph Practice Trends: Making the Grade Surgery News - January 2009 Surgery News - January 2009 - Contents (Page 1) Surgery News - January 2009 - Contents (Page 2) Surgery News - January 2009 - Contents (Page 3) Surgery News - January 2009 - Contents (Page 4) Surgery News - January 2009 - Contents (Page 5) Surgery News - January 2009 - The 20/20 Vision Intent to Prevent (Page 6) Surgery News - January 2009 - The 20/20 Vision Intent to Prevent (Page 7) Surgery News - January 2009 - News From the College: The Year Ahead (Page 8) Surgery News - January 2009 - News From the College: The Year Ahead (Page 9) Surgery News - January 2009 - Thoracic: Tracheal Triumph (Page 10) Surgery News - January 2009 - Thoracic: Tracheal Triumph (Page 11) Surgery News - January 2009 - Thoracic: Tracheal Triumph (Page 12) Surgery News - January 2009 - Thoracic: Tracheal Triumph (Page 13) Surgery News - January 2009 - Thoracic: Tracheal Triumph (Page 14) Surgery News - January 2009 - Practice Trends: Making the Grade (Page 15) Surgery News - January 2009 - Practice Trends: Making the Grade (Page 16)
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