Special Feature: A Warm Thank You
Special Feature
A Warm Thank You
By Leon Speroff, MD, Editor, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, is Editor for OB/GYN Clinical Alert.
About 30 years ago (so long ago that I can't remember the exact year), I began to edit a monthly newsletter devoted to reproductive medicine. The newsletter went through several titles and publishers until it became OB/GYN Clinical Alert, but in each of those nearly 400 newsletters, there has been one guiding principle: Express a clinically meaningful opinion.
There are and have been other newsletters. However, the commentary that follows an abstract almost always concludes: This finding will require more study, or the meaning of this report awaits the results of a randomized, clinical trial. My requirement from each contributing editorial board member over the years has been not only to interpret a current important article, but also to give clinicians your judgement regarding the impact of the article on clinical practice. It takes a little chutzpah to stick your neck out, especially in the recent years of "evidence-based medicine." But the newsletter has served to remind us all that we know more than what we read in the literature, that our clinical decisions are based not only on a foundation of knowledge gained through our journals, but also our continuing education and our experience, the knowledge gained from every clinical encounter.
It is the task of an epidemiologist to derive study conclusions based on study data. It is the obligation of a clinician to make a judgment whether the epidemiologist's conclusions have clinical meaning. For example, an epidemiologist can conclude that estrogen reduces coronary artery calcification and point out that a randomized clinical trial has not proved that such a reduction lowers the risk of coronary heart disease. But it is appropriate for a clinician, knowing the correlation between coronary artery calcification and coronary heart disease, to conclude that estrogen reduction of coronary calcification will translate into less coronary heart disease. Medical judgments require more than absolute evidence from randomized trials; medical judgments frequently do not have the luxury of postponing clinically meaningful decisions until data are conclusive. I am proud that the contributors to the newsletters over the years have consistently shared their medical judgement in comments that were aimed to help clinicians and patients.
But it hasn't been a one-way path. The newsletters forced us to analyze current reports and think about them in depth, searching for flaws and for pearls. Many of my newsletter sentences found their way into my textbook. And a "hot" newsletter commentary often served as material for my weekly resident seminars. I am sure it has been the same for my editorial colleagues. We are thankful for the added motivation provided by writing for the newsletters. The best way to learn something is to teach it!
Now the time has come to pass the torch. Jeff Jensen, MD, my colleague in Oregon, will be the new chief editor. This is not nepotism; Jeff has acquired a national and international reputation in the area of family planning. He will continue to enforce the guiding practical, clinical principle of the newsletter, and his sense of humor is better than mine.
My heart-felt thanks to my editorial board members over the years, and especially to our readers. Now I am a professor emeritus, happy and thankfully well, writing nonmedical books, playing softball, fly-fishing, and riding my tractor. My best wishes to all for good health and a happy, rewarding life.
About 30 years ago (so long ago that I can't remember the exact year), I began to edit a monthly newsletter devoted to reproductive medicine.Subscribe Now for Access
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