Anniversary issue of JCHIMP

EDITOR'S PERSPECTIVES

Anniversary issue of JCHIMP

Published: 26 January 2012

Citation: Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives 2011, 1: 15885 - DOI: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i4.15885

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives 2011. © 2011 Anniversary issue of JCHIMP. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 

This is the fourth quarterly publication of the Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives (JCHIMP), www.JCHIMP.org. It could be looked at as the journal's first birthday. It has the largest number of published manuscripts to date. The theme of this issue is case reports; it includes a perspective on case reports as well as numerous interesting cases that have been submitted by residents and faculty.

Publishing case reports is part of the journal's mission. JCHIMP was organized in 2010 to respond to various needs expressed in the internal medicine educational community, including the need for a journal with community hospital orientation that would be a scholarly vehicle for residents and faculty. After contracting with the publisher Co-Action Publishing based in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2010 and developing a mentoring relationship with David Solomon, editor of Medical Education Online, we first called for papers 1 year ago in January 2011. Initially, we limited our manuscript call to original research, perspective pieces, case reports, medical education innovations, and an electrocardiogram column. In this, issue number 4, we have expanded to include brief reports and medical imaging. In our next issue, we expect to inaugurate the first in our History of Medicine series.

At the end of the first year, the journal is thriving. The journal has a 15-member editorial board, an editor, and managing and assistant managing editors. Except for some administrative assistance and the actual publishing costs, everything is done voluntarily. Our financing has three sources: a $350 publication fee for non-invited articles, donations from our readership (fully tax deductible), and generous financial support from MedStar Health System based in Columbia, Maryland, and the Union Memorial Hospital Department of Medicine in Baltimore.

If you have not read the journal, please sign up. It is a remarkable technology. Depending on the timing, it is not difficult to publish in final form articles that were submitted not more than 3 months prior. This has happened on a number of occasions so far this year.

We believe that the future of JCHIMP lies in its constituency in the community hospital network, that is, the Association of Program Directors and the voluntary subgroup, Community Hospital Education and Research Network (www.CHERNINFO.net). We foresee the journal as serving as an enduring publishing arm of CHERN.

We are very pleased with our peer reviewers. In the first four issues, 79 volunteers have completed reviews and are listed in Table 1. It is the first time some have been peer reviewers. 82% of those we requested have completed their reviews in the allotted 3 weeks. All submitted articles, including those invited, are peer reviewed by two or three peer reviewers. All peer reviewers are blinded to the origins of the articles. The journal editorial staff, with the help of David Solomon, is planning a faculty development workshop on peer reviewing in 2012.


Table 1. JCHIMP reviewers
Carlos Acuna Steven Gambert Phil Panzarella
Majd AI Ghatrif Eric Goldberg Anne Pereira
Chuck Albrecht Mohammadali Habibi Khalid Qazi
Donna Astiz Mitra Hashemi Ashish Rana
William Barnhart Youssef Hokayem Paul Sack
J Bergquist Noah Hoskins Fardad Sarabchi
Paul Bernstein Rong Hu Pamela Schroeder
Wayne Campbell Danjela Jelovac Andrew Schuldenfrei
Harjit Chahal Yan Ji Nawar Shara
lssam Cheikh Ning Ji Mansur Shomali
Malek Cheikh Joel Katz Peter Jeffery Sloane
Meegan Chestnut Christopher Kearney Cynthia Smith
Ehshan Chitsaz Bassem Khalil David Gary Smith
Chester Choi Ramesh Khurana Linda Thomas
Dobbin Chow Robert Kornberg Radika Vij
John Cmar Mahesh Krishnamurthy David Weisman
Melissa Delong Claudia Kroker Neil Weissman
Stephanie Detterline Sapna Patel Kuehl Wouter Wieling
Tracey Doering Henry Meilman Ashley Wietsma
Norman Dubin Marita Mike Donna Williams
Norman Dy Himu Minn Frederick Williams
Emmanuel Elueze Suneet Mittal Richard Williams
Fer Eren Mahsa Mohebtash Eskandar Yazaji
Robert Ferguson Marc Mugmon
Paul Foster Daryn Norwood
Dana Frank Zahra Pakbaz
Ethan Fried Venkataraman Palabindala

What we have accomplished to date? More than 2,500 ‘unique individuals’ have read the journal from 88 countries as of December 1, 2011. We have established our manuscript and article style – brief, succinct, and with a teaching message. Trainees are included at all levels in the organization, including readers and reviewers.

Where do we go from here? Our spring issue will have a diabetes treatment theme and will also include the first in our History of Medicine series. We plan to apply for ‘indexing,’ once we have the requisite number of articles published. We continue to recruit more reviewers and get them to engage in the program. As we become more widely known, we hope to have a broader scope; although, 88 countries is a good start.

This issue contains 11 manuscripts, including this one (1, 2) and a perspective piece on why case reports are important. Our first medical imaging report is from David Widlus (3). Two electrocardiogram are offered showing Osborne waves (4), and an upsettingly rapid atrial flutter with 1:1 conduction by Marc Mugmon (5). A perspective on the treatment of hyperkalemia and literature review are included (6). Four case reports by resident first authors are presented: hereditary renal carcinoma (7), Moxifloxacin–warfarin interaction (8), fatal meningococcemia (9), and ‘my appendectomy’ (10). The latter addresses what happens when a chief resident becomes a patient in his own institution. What could be a companion piece to this is a survey regarding how residents feel when receiving care for their personal health needs in their own institutions (11).

We will continue to publish quarterly. There is no limit to the number of manuscripts in each issue in our paperless journal. No limit except for the capacity of our volunteers. It is a lot of work, but it is also a lot of fun. We believe that what we are doing has an educational impact at many levels. I must confess that I love working with the students, residents, and faculty and hope that we are making a difference, raising their scholarly horizons. We believe that we are having an educational impact. We try to do it with a trace of wit because we believe that humor makes teaching fun.

References

  1. Ferguson R. Anniversary issue. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:15885. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.15885. [Crossref]
  2. Ferguson R. The value of reporting cases. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:15884. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.15884. [Crossref]
  3. Widlus D. CT scan for suspect acute appendicitis. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:10926. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.10926. [Crossref]
  4. Serafi S, Vliek C, Taremi M. Osborne waves in a hypothermic patient. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:10742. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.10742. [Crossref]
  5. Mugmon M. Atrial flutter with 1: 1 conduction. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:10663. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.10663. [Crossref]
  6. Mushiyakh Y, Dangaria H, Shahbaz Q, Noorjahan A, Pannone J, Tompkins D. Treatment and pathogenesis of acute hyperkalemia. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:7372. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.7372. [Crossref]
  7. Jadidi N, Mustafa S, Rodriguez R, Faraj S. A case of hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:9468. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.9468. [Crossref]
  8. Ji Y, Hokayem Y. Moxifloxacin-coumadin interaction. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:11512. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.11512. [Crossref]
  9. Tabacco J, Suniega E, Sarabchi F, Mitsani D. Fatal meningococcemia. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:11584. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.11584. [Crossref]
  10. Chiekh M. My appendectomy. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:10847. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.10847. [Crossref]
  11. Venkataraman P. Personal health care of internal medicine residents. J Comm Hos Intern Med Perspect. 2012;1:8864. doi: 10.3402/jchimp.v1i3.8864. [Crossref]

Robert P. Ferguson, MD

Editor

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Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives eISSN 2000-9666

This journal is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Responsible editor: Robert Ferguson, MD