Hello, I'm Aarti Sarwal, the Social Media Editor of Critical Care Medicine. For the December issue, I have the immense pleasure and honor of having Dr. Tim Buchman, the outgoing Editor-in-Chief of Critical Care Medicine who will be sharing his perspectives and Dr. Jon Sevransky, the incoming Editor-in-Chief of CCM. Good morning. Thank you Aarti. Tim, as somebody with a number of years of experience putting together a journal, I wonder whether you might highlight how you choose articles that ought to be selected for Editor's Choice and Feature articles and what might be highlighted in December's issue. Aarti, Jon. First, it's a pleasure to be with you. It is in some sense, a bittersweet moment but in a another sense, a very happy moment to be the outgoing Editor-in-Chief. You've asked an important question. It's a question we editors ask ourselves every time we prepare an issue. What is it that we want to bring to the attention of our readers, our members, the critical care community at large? It begins with a choice of feature articles, what we want to bring right up to the forefront. Those have always been for me, articles that I thought would be both of widespread interest and relatively immediate impact in the way people think about their practice and actually practice. In the December issue, I selected four feature articles. There's a pair of articles from different sources, looking at the ability to stand at the time of intensive care unit discharge and what that forecasts for our patients, their families, for their caregivers about their future trajectory. Intensive care is an episode for us, but it's an ongoing experience for patients and families and it's a way of inviting them to understand what lies ahead. Adjacent to that. there's an article on association between restricting symptoms and disability after critical illness. It provides even greater insight into that post discharge trajectory. The fourth feature article I chose also of widespread interest is on the adjudication of codes for identifying patients with clinical sepsis and hospital administrative data and how expert consensus might affect and improve that process. But it's not just contemporary material that we publish, not just cutting edge. We focus a great deal on review articles where experts collect information of various types to inform our readers and give them ready reference. We have a couple of types of reviews, both of which are featured in the December issue. From Rinaldo Bellomo's group there's a systematic review with up to date information on the relationship between angiotensin-II, a now fairly common vasopressor and the risk of thromboembolic events when that medication is given. Similarly, we produce concise definitive reviews. Articles that are aimed at giving our clinicians and our colleagues a summary of the most reliable information that they must have at their fingertips to effectively care for patients. This month's concise definitive review is on malignant hyperthermia. Now, to be truthful, I've read more articles on malignant hyperthermia than I've seen patients. But that doesn't diminish its importance because every one of us is responsible for knowing exactly what to do when that diagnosis is suspected. Finally, as editor, there's always an opportunity to take a forward looking position. In the December issue, there is a pair of articles that I've identified as Innovation Series. One from Michael Pinsky's group, looking at the evaluation of a physiologic driven closed-group resuscitation algorithm. Something that I used to do as a intern resident, fellow and attending. Sit at the bedside and titrate the fluids and the pressors. Maybe an algorithm can do it better than I can, do it more safely than I can, do it more reliably than I can. What does that mean for the future of our profession? In extending that idea about the future, we're all innovators. We always were looking for a way to do it better. What does it mean to be a device manufacturer? What is the FDA saying about what we can and can't do as clinicians and our clinician generated innovations, taking them to our patients in the ICU. Well, that's a short collection of our Editor's Choice articles that are coming through this month. They are free to the world if they're looked at now. I encourage everybody not only to rip the plastic off the print issue, but also to send this information to their friends and colleagues and let them know that the leading journal in critical care, Critical Care Medicine continues to make content that is practice changing available to the world for free each and every month. Tim, thanks so much for that helpful discussion. I wanted to highlight two things that you are going to see moving forward. The first of them you are seeing right now in that these discussions will tend to have a conversation. So you will see with upcoming issues of the journal, there'll be a conversation between some experts about articles that are present within the journal. The second is, in the 21st century, people learn differently. People consume new information differently and to reflect that, this December issue will in fact be the last print journal. Starting in January, Critical Care Medicine will be an online-only journal. This will afford contributors to put color articles in without additional charges. You will see in the foreword to this edition some additional information about things that may be easier with the online version. Aarti, is there anything that you would like to add? As much as this December issue brings these mixed feelings of transitions, I'm looking forward to the new era in the time of critical care medicine with Tim handing over the reins of CCM to you and for our readers, as the holidays are coming in, Happy Holidays, be warm and safe. A very happy New Year and don't forget to check out the December issue and for more articles, please follow us on X and Facebook. Goodbye.
