Description

For the purists, the new Millennium has just begun and with it our profession is moving to compulsory continuing professional development and revalidation. The role of publications such as this one seems set to become more important in supporting the new regimes of education and update. This journal has been published, in its present form and as two earlier journals, for four years. Articles have mostly come by the editorial team making specific requests to likely authors for reviews in developing areas or on subjects worthy of careful examination and discussion. Many papers of high quality have resulted. However this has never been an easy task and asking for papers to a deadline from already hard pressed experts can often result in a low rate of submission. The journal has tried to encourage spontaneous submissions but these have been few, probably for the same reasons. Those submitting article are assured of a sympathetic ear and articles published are indexed allowing citation in a curriculum vitae or merit award application. If the overworked consultant has little time to prepare reviews, a specialist registrar or research fellow can often be invited to collaborate. A review prepared in this way must of course be checked and revised by the expert but the experience can be mutually beneficial. We can only provide a service to your CPD if we receive articles. Junior medical staff should be particularly encouraged to submit case reports, critical article reviews and items on laboratory techniques.

Two of our original editorial team, Alasdair MacGowan and David Dance, have now left and we thank them for their flare and hard work over the years. We would be happy to hear from any that feel they could contribute to being a sub-editor.

The next CPD Update in Infection will be on 11 May 2001 at the Royal College of Pathologists. The program appears in this issue. It should be an interesting day and I hope to see you there.