Dear colleagues,
How many times do we re-invent ourselves? How often does a journal such as ours need to re-assess where we are going? These questions often animate our more and more frequent editorial board meetings, and the truth is increasingly evident today that a publication, especially a print one, needs to be nimble and reactive in order, not only to survive, but keep up with its intended public. For our field, based on cutting-edge technologies and research, trying to explore the trends, the evidence base as it develops... to understand what you need and desire, has become an obsession and a necessity for us.
We cannot do this alone in a vacuum, we need your input to improve, and that is why we are proud to announce to you an experiment, not something all packaged and complete, but an evolving experience in how to access EuroIntervention.
Multiplying media
In May we re-defined our print version, with a new new style that allows, what we believe to be a better readability. We took a chance with a design that is rarely seen in journals of our stature or subject matter, using the vertical margin at the far end of the page for our index citations. Some of our readers have told us that this new design reminds them more of an online screen page, where all the “real estate” on your browser is of interactive use... and we are pleased at this reaction because, to some degree, this is the point, and brings us to the next stage in our development, the launch this month of our EuroIntervention iPad application.
There are important points linked to this development. First, and foremost is our commitment to our print edition. Our online and iPad versions are in no way a replacement for the print journal, but provide a complementary and added value to our work, facilitating the best transfer of information and and insuring a clear presentation of the material available. This is only the beginning of our adventure with the iPad, and like our increasing online presence, it will unfold over the next few months. Beware! This is not a finished product, so if you are looking for some slick “app” do not come here, rather, we invite you to use it, react to it, tell us what you feel is missing, what you would like to see, and thus, help us develop the most seamless future application for the diffusion of information in our field. We have started the ball rolling with this simple iPad application, now it is for you to help us make it grow.
While you are experiencing EuroIntervention on the iPad, we are simultaneously working on other material for print and electronic mediums that will add to our knowledge base and experience. With the PCR family, we have been working on the PCR textbook, to be published next year, whose online presence will be considerable. At the same time, the previously announced OCT ATLAS –whose specific and visual subject matter lends itself to a strictly digital medium– has been under development these last few months, and will soon be released. All these experiences will come together –along with your input– to insure that the second release of the iPad application will be truly phenomenal.
The medium is NOT the only point
No matter how technologically advanced we might become, no matter how pretty our journal appears, this will be meaningless if we do not provide the content that you are looking for, and more, not stopping here, if we ourselves are not in the forefront of the changes, the controversies and the ideas occurring in interventional cardiology today. Those who know me and the journal, know that we have never shied away from examining breaking issues or technologies, the “Editorial Expedited Publication” or EEP, announced last month, provides us with a protocol for insuring that breaking information is provided in a timely fashion.
As you read this issue of EuroIntervention, our first EEPs are online. You will find one of the very first reports on a balloon expandable valve implanted in a tricuspid bioprosthesis from the femoral vein by Patrick Calvert et al1, which the editors felt extremely important, and by publishing it rapidly here, we allow it to become part of the discussion taking place in and around PCR London Valve, occurring this month as well.
The second EEP offers us the opportunity to take the lead in a public discussion concerning emerging information that is crucial to the use of our technology. This article by Colm G. Hanratty and Simon J. Walsh reports on several cases which bring into question the hitherto unspecified parameter of longitudinal stent strength or compressibility.2 We are aware that at this moment there have been other cases about to be reported on this complication as well, in order to temper the debate, we have invited the prominent engineers Peter Mortier and Matthieu De Beule to comment on this article, an editorial/commentary that we publish online simultaneously with this EEP.3 The issue is worthy of a quickened publication, and the EEP affords us the possibility of bringing you the most important and breaking issues while respecting our peer review process. I myself believe that the questions posed by this article could have a critical effect on our judgment and assessment of the so-called second generation stents. We must by all means avoid a “class effect” for new devices in this area, but, instead, we should try and explore where the concern lies –be it a specific design, the specific alloy or the thickness of the struts that could be responsible for this phenomenon of the longitudinal compression reported by our colleagues. It is essential that this observation should not be construed as a “cat amongst the pigeons doom scenario” and it is unwarranted to put all device manufacturers into the same basket. In essence, this is an important observation that needs to be placed into its proper context by ourselves, and hence the importance of why we are bringing it before you, the specialised public, as soon as possible.
Join us
We evolve along with our specialty. We seek the most efficient, the clearest, and the most useful methods to diffuse our knowledge. In doing so we perhaps take chances, perhaps miss certain opportunities, but we will only know our errors if we try and if you join us in this endeavour, here in our print version, online or with our new iPad application –we are open to your suggestions, we are here and committed to create a meaningful and productive platform for our community.
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