EDITORIAL

Does your institution subscribe to Obstetric Medicine? Catherine Nelson-Piercy and Sandra Lowe

This year will see the fourth anniversary of the launch of the journal Obstetric Medicine. Many thanks to all those who completed the reader’s survey. This has reassured us that most of you find the journal useful and believe that it fills what was previously a gap. We will be using the results of this survey to appeal the decision not to include Obstetric Medicine in MEDLINE. We know that all of you will feel more comfortable writing, reviewing and commissioning copy for the journal once it is listed in MEDLINE. However, the long-term success of the journal also depends on securing enough institutional subscriptions to ensure financial viability. All members of ISOM, MOMS, NASOM and SOMANZ receive the journal at a substantially subsidized cost and we do not wish to change this. We feel it is and should remain an important benefit of membership of these societies. However, we would really appreciate your help in approaching your own institution’s library. Please consider completing a library recommendation form at http://www. rsmpress.com/librarians/recommend.php. Subscription information can also be found at www.obmed.rsmjournals.com. Obstetric Medicine, along with other RSM journals, is available online on the newly released RSM H2O platform hosted by the world’s leading electronic content provider, HighWire, which offers instant access to full text, where available, with links to references and cited articles. Your Librarian would benefit from:

† † † † †

Easy online access via www.obmed.rsmjournals.com; Top quality obstetric medicine-related content; Access to online archive covering four years of essential obstetric medicine research; Access to articles online first; The online version of a journal gives librarians and readers quick and easy access to a whole range of research articles.

In this issue of the journal, Priya Soma-Pillay and Peter Macdonald from South Africa review the prevention, diagnosis and management of malaria in pregnancy. John Craig answers the question, ‘Do lamotrigine and levetiracetam

solve the problem of using sodium valproate in women with epilepsy?’ by way of an excellent and up-to-date review on the current data and controversies surrounding antiepileptic drug use in women of child-bearing age. Many of you will be included in the email list, The Obstetric Medicine Listserv, and may have contributed to the lively email discussion forum where members share anonymized details of challenging cases and clinical dilemmas. In this issue, we are publishing Michael Carson’s commentary on the concept and development of a listserv programme to facilitate expert advice and communication about difficult clinical scenarios. A summary of one of the earlier cases highlighting Controversies Surrounding Thrombophilia Testing follows to illustrate how listserv performs. Using email rather than the clinical forum on the ISOM website seems to result in participation of more clinicians, perhaps because it does not necessitate logging on to a separate website. Also in this issue a retrospective analysis by Johnston and Said of perinatal outcomes in 500 women with asthma confirms findings from other studies that maternal asthma may be associated with an increased risk of preterm birth, preeclampsia and caesarean delivery. Inevitably, case reports discuss rare diseases or rare presentations of common diseases and this month is no exception. We publish reports of pregnancies in association with Moyamoya disease, osteopetrosis, fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva and an unusual cause of chest pain. This year will also bring us the Olympics and the sixth International Scientific Meeting of ISOM – ISOM 2012. We hope that you have submitted your abstracts to [email protected], using the form available at http://www.isom2012.org/ abstracts.html, booked your flights, registered for the conference and booked your accommodation at Keble College, Oxford – further details available at http://www.isom2012. org. Do not forget that there is a travel award prize of $US 500 for the best submitted abstract. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible as it promises to be a vibrant and educational meeting as well as a chance to catch up with old friends and colleagues.

DOI: 10.1258/om.2012.12E001. Obstetric Medicine 2012; 5: 1

Does your institution subscribe to Obstetric Medicine?

Does your institution subscribe to Obstetric Medicine? - PDF Download Free
45KB Sizes 2 Downloads 7 Views