Description

Our aim is to publish three issues of the Bulletin in the year, although this may be over-ambitious for our relatively small sub-specialties. To this end Carrock Sewell has been appointed as assistant editor; he has considerable experience in electronic communication which should prove useful in the future. In addition, I shall be seeking two Associate Editors to speed up publication.

Graham Bird played an important part in the setting up of the Bulletin; I and the Board members were very saddened by his death in early 2000. Without his characteristic enthusiasm I would not have taken the plunge to start the Bulletin. He did a marvellous job in helping to persuade colleagues and the Royal College of Pathologists that this endeavour was worthwhile, and we owe it to his memory to make it a success. He was a good and confident clinician, and understood the importance of Immunologists influencing the ‘sharp end’ of medicine. I shall miss his directness and sense of fun.

We are slowly attracting Case Reports, the one in this issue offering some very useful advice on managing a rare problem; remember that these reports are citable, and the Bulletin should therefore be an ideal vehicle for SpRs to publish. My thanks to Edward Kaminsky, Sharon Choo and Adam Finn for ruffling a few feathers in the correspondence column; we need much more of this as Immunology and Allergy are still very much evolving as a clinical science.

Finally, we hope to see important changes in the provision of Immunology and Allergy services in the UK over the next two years. The next edition will provide an update on events and perhaps will set the trend for some lively correspondence on shortcomings in our services and how we see ourselves in the future.