Dear Colleagues,
As we all know, there is a fine line between self-promotion – showing off – and challenging others to greater achievements. We face this dilemma often in our professional and personal lives: the professor wanting to spur on his students to a better understanding; the parent, gently seeking to inspire their children; the trainer pushing on his athletes... We have learned to live by – and evolve – through challenges and healthy competition. Certainly there are dangers, self-delusions, faulty communications involved, and, yes, it is a tightrope act, but we believe one worth attempting, because without setting a standard in the first place, without throwing that first rock in the pond and causing ripples, we might not know there was water there to begin with. Putting out our own work for others to react to, either for praise, criticism or indifference... at least creates a reaction and gives us something to build upon.
So what are we doing here? As you look through this upcoming issue you will see several articles from Rotterdam, as well as others online as “ahead-of-print”. There are such articles as “Population characteristics, treatment assignment and survival of patients with aortic stenosis referred for percutaneous valve replacement” by Amber M Otten, or the late-breaking “Procedural and 30-day outcomes following transcatheter aortic valve implantation using the third generation CoreValve ReValving system, results from the multicentre, expanded evaluation registry 1-year following CE mark approval” by Nicolo Piazza. There is the return of our “hands-on” educational section “How should I treat” with a case presented by Peter de Jaegere – though here I should point out that we have invited commentary by an interventionalist and surgeon from the renowned Heart Centre, Leipzig, Germany.
So are we, in doing this, showing off the work of our own centre, or are we, in fact, merely spotlighting the wealth of information that has been produced here in the Netherlands these past few years? We have been advancing aggressively with research and developments in structural heart disease, which, by the way, is an important theme in this current issue of EuroIntervention. Valve replacement itself was a buzzword at the last EuroPCR in Barcelona. There is a feeling of excitement and real achievements in what is now happening in our field, and while I know that we are not the only ones working in this specific area, you will often see our work on this subject in other journals – so why not publish in Europe’s only interventional journal? Create the dialogue. Move things, not necessarily in our direction alone, but knowing that we need to begin somewhere, and we know where we are... If nothing else.
This is not, nor is meant to be, a journal reflecting one point-of-view, whether institutional, cultural or scientific. We encourage an active and constructive debate as can be seen the following editorials by surgeons, and the wealth of other material drawn from throughout the world. We know our efforts are not going unnoticed as well. At EuroPCR, many participants responding to an in-house poll, read our journal with “satisfaction”. A recent perusal of the Web of Science has shown that EuroIntervention has been referenced in over 150 recent articles published in other peer-review professional journals, with over half of these articles found in such publications as Circulation, JACC, Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, the European Heart Journal, the American Journal of Cardiology, to name just a few of the world renown English language publications where our own journal has been cited. We have also been referenced in the New England Journal of Medicine, not to mention other journals in Spanish, French, German and other languages.
We feel certain, that whatever is happening in these pages, it is being noticed by our community of specialists... and not simply noticed, but taken note of. Our website downloads never cease to astound us, and with this issue, besides the previously mentioned articles on structural heart disease, you will see a range of focus articles, which we are sure will add yet another chapter to our online and print history – surpassing even our current record for downloads.
We are part of the dialogue. We challenge you to follow our lead, join us, and take the lead yourselves in the future. One thing we are certain of... we will be there to publish your results.
