In today's world, we are bombarded daily with a never-ending stream of information-whether usable or not. Our brain, attention span, and mental focus are challenged every time we venture onto the Internet and surf the World Wide Web. The news cycles are becoming more compressed from the standard daily reports; stories now unfold from hour to hour and minute to minute. What we read in the morning's newspaper is already old news.
This same exposure to all the information now available at our fingertips also applies to our professional lives as healthcare practitioners. The quality and quantity of the immense amount of informatics related to healthcare in general, and wound care specifically, are highly fragmented and, at times, can be overwhelming to the end user. The hunter and gatherer of useful and timely, clinically relevant information must sift through layers of Web sites, homepages, advertisements, and just plain litter strewn along the information highway.
Access to more technical and professional information is by design on a slower track than the instant news media. It has to be usable, robust, and credible and have a high yield in terms of usable content that will enhance our practice of wound care and beyond. Professional healthcare Web sites must provide information packages of abundantly collateralized information and benefit to the user, for example, continuing education, documentation, knowledge testing and certification for continuing medical education credits, nursing educational credits, and credits for other professionals in the wound care community. This requires preeminent thought and content.
To streamline this gathering of information, our goal at Advances in Skin & Wound Care journal is to provide you with "one-stop shopping" for all your online needs. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, our publisher and a Wolters Kluwer company, launched a new Web platform last year, offering a new, more personalized, innovative interface that integrates medical journal content and various media to enable collaboration and sharing among wound care practitioners and other medical professionals. Although our site has gone through changes, the journal's Web address remains the same: http://www.woundcarejournal.com. Look for added features in the coming weeks, including "collections" of articles specific to certain topics. We'll provide you with free links of articles we've published on a variety of topics to help you find the information you need-all in one stop!
Our new and improved site will be easier to navigate, and throughout the coming year, added features will include
* online-only text, including news reports; links to resources for nurses, physicians, and patients; and announcements of new developments in wound care and healthcare.
* podcasts and videos. We plan to soon feature an audio description of highlights from the monthly issue, as well as podcast interviews with authors and others on various topics. We will welcome video submissions of procedures and cases (with patient permission) and ideas for posting peer-reviewed audio or video material.
* editors' picks and top picks on the home page that tell readers what we think is particularly noteworthy and what articles users have accessed most often.
* networking opportunities, including readers' comments on articles and other posts about wound care and healthcare.
* opportunities to create your own collections of articles and audiovisual extras and the option of receiving really simple syndication (RSS) feeds and e-mailed news alerts. RSS is a group of Web feed formats that can be used to publish frequently updated works, such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, or video, all in a standard format.
These and other features will be unveiled over the coming year, so visit http://www.woundcarejournal.com often, and let us know what you think!
We recognize our readers want a high-quality print journal combined with interactive media to further elucidate topics that are critical to wound care. This includes collaboration and information sharing with thought and content leaders in the field. Having watched most of the major newspapers, such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, adapt to their readers' fast-paced thirst for the multifaceted streams of information mentioned here, we want to assure you we understand that 90% of communication is listening. We hear you and are adapting to your needs.
Don't forget, all of the past issues of Advances in Skin & Wound Care are posted in the archive section of http://www.woundcarejournal.com. All articles are free to journal subscribers. To activate your free online account,
1. Visit http://www.woundcarejournal.com.
2. Click on "Register" in the upper right corner.
3. Complete the information as prompted.
4. You will receive an e-mail link to complete your registration. Click on the link and follow the directions. You'll need your subscriber ID, which is located on the journal's mailing label above your name. Enjoy your free online access for the length of your print subscription.
Richard "Sal" Salcido, MD