It is what we do not know that may hurt us most!
Dr. Hamdy
The sheer number of medical publications precludes most practicing clinicians from thoroughly reading, fully analyzing, adequately interpreting, and satisfactorily integrating into their practice a large amount of contemporary information contained in the published medical literature. This is further compounded by the often complicated statistical methods used to analyze and report the data in many published manuscripts. Furthermore, the limitation of space in most medical journals prevents a thorough dissertation on the particular issue, its full meaning, and potential impact.
And yet, in these days of almost instantaneous dissemination of information, prominence of medical matters in the lay press, and widespread availability of medical information, patients often confront their clinicians regarding their opinion on a recently published article that the clinician may not even have seen, let alone analyzed and understood. This could be embarrassing to the clinician and may negatively impact the clinician/patient relationship.
Patients also may decide—based on their own interpretation of the published results—to alter the dose or even discontinue taking their medication, which may have serious consequences. To make matters worse, many patients may elect not to share these decisions with their treating physicians in a timely manner.
In an attempt to keep our readers informed of current medical events, especially those that may have a significant impact on their clinical practice, we are developing a new section entitled “Rapid Response.” Our desire is to provide information to help readers interpret the published data and integrate these findings in their day to day practice.
In this section, we will ask one or more experts to offer insight into the published manuscript; interpret the findings in the context of the practicing clinician and individual patient; place the issue in perspective of the larger context; and make some specific practical recommendations to practicing clinicians. A direct link with the published manuscript, as well as other related topics, will also be offered for those who may be interested in reading the original paper(s).
We also will attempt to make this section as interactive as possible by posting it on our website as soon as possible. We hope in the near future to also provide an opportunity for our readers to post their own remarks on the website, express their opinions and even ask questions which peers or experts may wish to answer. We indeed hope that our web-based Rapid Response section will spawn several communities of interest and provide a forum for interested parties to exchange ideas and concerns, interact with each other, and gain a better appreciation of the impact of many published papers. These responses subsequently will be published in the SMJ, referring to one article per issue.
We hope that the Rapid Response section will be useful to many clinicians. As always, we welcome input from our readers on how to improve the contents and presentation of the Southern Medical Journal. The main goal of the SMJ is to help clinicians provide the best possible care for their patients. We hope that this new endeavor will help us accomplish our mission. Please direct responses/comments to smjedit@mail.etsu.edu.
Ronald C. Hamdy, MD, FRCP, FACP
Editor-in-Chief, Southern Medical Journal
Dr. Hamdy is Professor of Internal Medicine and holder of the Cecile Cox Quillen Chair of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology and is also Director of the Osteoporosis Center at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee.
