Published: 2012-05-24
The Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery (ACS) is a bi-monthly peer-reviewed publication that is dedicated to the advancement of cardiothoracic surgery. It is our goal to create a journal with a unique structure and format, which will provide tremendous improvement in our ongoing understanding and sharing of knowledge.
The main focus of the ACS is to highlight a subspecialty topic in each issue, aiming to provide a critical analysis and comprehensive overview of contemporary and at times controversial aspects of the topic. In each release, the topic is discussed in detail, via pre-determined sections. These sections include Systematic Reviews, Featured Articles, Research Highlights, Perspectives, Illustrated Articles, Masters of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Safeguards and Pitfalls and ACS Patient Page.We are extremely excited about this novel presentation. In particular, we are eagerly anticipating our readers’ feedback on the following featured sections:
Systematic reviews
This section addresses the topic through the principles of evidence-based medicine, with each article identifying and appraising the highest-level of evidence available in the current literature. The inclusion of systematic reviews and/or meta-analyses in each of our issues will assert the high quality of the publication.
Art of operative techniques
This section includes richly illustrated articles, depicting operative procedures in a step-by-step format. The pictures would be accompanied by professional illustrations to facilitate the orientation and interpretation.
Masters of cardiothoracic surgery
This is a key section, which carries narrated operative videos provided by renowned surgeons. This section acts as a detailed “how to” multimedia manual for operative procedures. These videos are viewable on the DVD included with each issue and through our ACS website. Viewers would find expert opinions regarding possible pitfalls and the comparison of the described procedure with other surgical techniques.
Safeguards and pitfalls
This section acts to specifically highlight and draw attention to complications and mishaps in surgery. These reports detail the mechanisms of complications and how best to manage and avoid them. This is an extremely valuable section, with a focus that is not often formally recognized and presented in other surgical journals. Our dedication to this section in the ACS is to improve surgical outcomes and reduce learning curves by sharing the lessons learnt from others.
ACS patient page
This section offers a public service, which is free to all readers. The aim is to provide information sheets for patients, which are easy to read, whilst addressing important issues. Each page will also provide clear links to other reliable health resources. We hope this page will act as a great resource for your practice and we encourage you to download these pages for distribution to your patients.
Finally, we would also like to highlight a key component of the ACS format, which involves the pleasure of introducing a special Guest Editor to oversee the content of each issue.
We trust that you will find that the ACS will make a significant contribution to the current literature and to your daily practice of cardiothoracic surgery.
Tristan D. Yan, MBBS, MS, MD, PhD.
Paul G. Bannon, MBBS, PhD.
Editors-in-Chief
Annals of Cardiothoracic Surgery