An Overview of What We Are About

This is my eleventh editorial letter to you as your Editor in Chief of International Surgery.

In my last editorial letter, I emphasized the peer review process and how important this process is to the overall quality of medical/scientific information that is provided to our readers of International Surgery. In this letter, I momentarily pause to “take stock” of where we are and “what we are about” with this publication.

Our purpose is to educate surgeons so they provide the very best medical care possible to their respective patients. In so doing, we foster learning from each other, with the overall parallel goal of advancing the profession of surgery in all specialties. New information is almost “exploding” from ongoing research efforts, for example, MEDLINE (the world's premier medical database) contains 22 million references, with 2000–4000 completed references added each day.¹ Our task is to communicate this new information to the entire profession on a global scale. It is truly an exciting challenge and a noble endeavor as we all function to improve the lives of our patients. In a broad sense, we are humanitarians and our goal is to give back.

We need fresh perspectives, which allow us the opportunity to capitalize on every emerging opportunity, every new insight from ongoing research, and every new procedure in surgery. Global cooperation, collaboration, and innovation are needed and communicated in a “teaching” format. We need specialized skills to deal with the dynamic complexity of today's surgical issues. Faster solutions and response times, as well as transparency in reporting, will assist in getting to the “heart” of newly emerging issues in surgery and medicine.

We are about providing every author of a manuscript with the opportunity to share new learning and insights with our readers. Our team, comprising the staff of the Editor in Chief, the associate editors, the publisher, and all other persons involved in publishing International Surgery, is totally committed to fulfilling, in the very best manner possible, what we are all about.

I hope that you appreciate this overview. We must stay focused on what is important—if we do, we will render excellent service to all.

I thank all members of the team involved in publishing International Surgery for their commitment and excellent support.

Sincerely,

Christopher Chen

Editor-in-Chief

International Surgery