August 2002 Newsletter

Collaboration with journals promotes integration between disciplines

The publisher of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery has agreed to offer members of the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists subscriptions to The Annals of Thoracic Surgery for $140/year, discounted from $240. The subscription includes both the printed edition and electronic access to the same complete edition at the web site, http://ats.ctsnetjournals.org. The primary purpose of this discount is to provide cardiovascular and thoracic anesthesiologists access to a broad range of current scientific and clinical articles on adult and pediatric cardiac and general thoracic surgery; critical care; transplantation; mechanical circulatory assistance; brain, heart and spinal cord protection; ischemia/reperfusion research; extracorporeal perfusion; imaging and monitoring; anesthesiology; blood transfusion; database analyses; and respiratory and circulatory physiology and pathophysiology. The Annals publishes 4-6 supplements per year; between 4500 and 5000 pages; 550 to 600 original scientific articles and is sent to over 10,000 subscribers worldwide. A secondary purpose of the discount is to encourage greater interaction and interchange between surgeons, anesthesiologists, intensivists, perfusionists and other members of teams caring for patients before, during and after cardiothoracic operations.

The Annals already publishes more scientific articles written by anesthesiologists and intensivists than competitive cardiothoracic surgical journals and, according to the editor, is receptive and happy to publish more top quality work. For example, the June 2002 issue contained 7 articles authored by at least one anesthesiologist. One hundred four anesthesiologists serve as guest reviewers for The Annals. In an informal survey among our cardiothoracic anesthesiology fellows, an average of 155 (range: 69-240) articles that were clinically relevant to their practice were identified within the last 12 issues of the Annals. The editor, Dr. L. Henry Edmunds, considers this a start not a ceiling.

The executive committee of the SCA welcome this gesture of cooperation and collaboration on the part of The Annals and Elsevier Science. It has always been our belief that free exchange of information and knowledge between surgeons and anesthesiologists is necessary for effective function as an integrated team. This has been particularly evident as TEE is being used more frequently to make diagnostic decisions in the operating room and as more cardiothoracic anesthesiologists provide critical care services to cardiothoracic surgical patients. It is our hope that increased access to the cardiothoracic surgical literature will make our jobs more interesting, and promote collaboration between disciplines. The Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists recog-nized also the importance of establishing collaborations with our surgical colleagues and identified it as an important objective in the 2002 strategic plan.

Albert T. Cheung, MD
Editor, SCA Newsletter

Roger A. Moore, MD
SCA President

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