EDITORIAL
available at www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm
LASER THERAPY MARCHES ON! Toshio Ohshiro
My dear friends and colleagues, faithful readers, welcome to the second issue of the 21st volume of Laser Therapy. If I look back 23 years, nearly a quarter of a century, to March of 1989, the first words I ever wrote in Volume 1 No 1 as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal were; “Laser Therapy is on the march!” In fact, I wrote more or less the same for the Editorial to the first issue of Volume 14, back in April of 2005, when we resurrected the journal and its masthead from the disrepair into which it had fallen. Back then, we had 48 pages per issue and, true to my promise, we first increased the page count to 60, and now it is up to 84 pages, so we are indeed still on the march. In 1989 the journal was the official organ of the International Laser Therapy Association, ILTA, and then for a while, the World Association for Laser Therapy (WALT). In 2005, however, we were the official journal for no association, but now we proudly count 6 journals who use Laser Therapy as their official organ, which started with the International Phototherapy Association (IPTA) from Volume 15, issue 4, to which have been added the International Society for Laser Surgery and Medicine (ISLSM), the World Federation of Societies for Laser Medicine and Surgery (WFSLMS), the Asian-Pacific Association for Laser Medicine and Surgery (APALMS), the Japan Society for Laser Reproduction (JaSLaR) and the Japan Association for Laser Medicine and Sports Science (JALMSS). Probably the greatest step forward in the onward march of the journal was our acceptance for listing in J-STAGE (Japan Science and Technology Information Aggregator, Electronic), and now we can offer articles online up to and including issue 1 of Volume 5 (1993). J-STAGE is working hard to get the remaining volumes scanned and online. All of these journal articles are fully searchable by title, author and keyword. Furthermore, all articles and items in the journal, with the exception of those less than 6 months old at the time of searching, are available freely as open access articles in downloadable and printable PDF files. Those less than 6 months old can be downloaded on a reasonable fee per article basis. We believe this provides
Editorial 21:2
a valuable resource to all those researching the field of photomedicine and photosurgery. A further major triumph is the adoption by JSTAGE of the XML language for indexing journals, and as a result, Laser Therapy has already passed the first 2 of 3 hurdles for indexing on PubMed. This is of course an enormous step forward, and not only will it ensure the journal’s gaining a higher impact factor, but it will also mean that from the final stage of our acceptance, authors and articles appearing in Laser Therapy will be indexed and searchable in PubMed. Laser Therapy is truly on the march!
Safety First Laser Therapy has always prided itself on its dedication to observing and encouraging all safety considerations with lasers and other light sources. This is especially true since the surgical laser societies joined the IPTA in using the journal as their mouthpiece. Japan has a long and proud history of medical laser research and practice, and the Japan Society for Laser Surgery and Medicine (JSLSM), founded in 1979, has always championed the safe use of lasers and light devices. The JSLSM’s commitment to excellence in safety procedures has led to JSLSM’s safety courses being recognized as a valid certification for medical laser users, researchers and engineers by the Koseirodosho, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare which is Japan’s equally stringent equivalent of the FDA in the USA. As part of the Society’s commitment to continuing safety with lasers, the JSLSM undertook the enormous task of putting together a series of comprehensive guidelines for the safe use of lasers in the main fields of laser application in medicine and surgery, including PDT, published as “Safety Guidelines for Laser Surgery and Medicine”. As part of the journal’s own commitment to ensuring the safe and effective use of photosurgery and phototherapy, we have undertaken to have all of these guidelines translated from the original Japanese into English, and with the three sets of guidelines in the current issue on photodynamic therapy
89
EDITORIAL (PDT) in cutaneous lesions photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) and PDT in neurosurgical applications and the use of the laser in periodontal applications, we are completely up to date with all 12 guidelines. My colleagues and I on the Laser Therapy editorial team hope that these guidelines will serve as a basis for any other interested parties who wish to set up their own standards for the safe practice of laser medicine
Laser Therapy volume, date and issue No
and surgery, bearing in mind that these are also the official guidelines sanctioned by the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan. For your information, the publishing schedule of all the guidelines up to the present is shown in the following table. For full details of the authors and their affiliations, please use the search facility at https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm/.
Title of Guidelines
Vol. 15 (2006) No. 3
Safety Guidelines for PDT in Early Stage Lung Cancer
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 2
Treatment Guidelines for Endoscopic High Reactive Level Laser Treatment ( HLLT ) of the Gastrointestinal Tract
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 2
Guideline for the Use of High Output Lasers in the Field of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 3
Safety Guidelines for Performing Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) in the Digestive Tract
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 3
Safety Guidelines for the Usage Of Lasers in the Field of Urology
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 4
Safety Guidelines for Lithotripsy Procedures Using Lasers in the Field of Urology
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 4
Safety Guidelines for the Use of High Output Lasers in the Field of Respiratory Tract Surgery
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 1
Safety Guidelines for PDT in the Field of Otorhinolaryngology and Head And Neck Disorders
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 1
Safety Guidelines for Photodynamic Therapy in the Treatment of Early Stage Cancer and Dysplasia of the Uterine Cervix
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 2
Safety Guidelines for PDT of Cutaneous Lesions
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 2
Safety Guidelines for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Laser Applications in the Neurosurgical Field
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 2
Safety Guidelines for the Laser Removal of Calculus
Third ILLiS Initiative during APALMS 2012 With the postponement and then cancellation of the 19th ISLSM congress in Korea, the International Laser Licensing System (ILLiS) initiative planned for that occasion also had to be cancelled. I am now delighted to be able to announce that Professor Cheng-Jen Chang, President of the 14 th APALMS, has very graciously agreed to set aside time for the 3rd ILLiS course during his meeting in Taipei, Taiwan. Please go to http://www.apalms2012.tw/ILLiS.html, where you will also be able to find detailed information on the initiative and the application form to join this course. In
90
available at www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm
brief, for those who may not as yet be familiar with this educational course, the ILLiS initiative was jointly set up under the auspices of the ISLSM and the WFSLMS to provide a course of instruction in basic science, lighttissue interaction and safety for those wishing to use lasers or other light sources in photosurgery and photomedicine. The first ILLiS, held as the IMeLaS initiative, was held in Tokyo in 2009, and the second ILLiS in Suwa City, Japan during the 13th APALMS meeting. The ILLiS initiative has been designed to certify successful and suitably qualified applicants as an International Specialist in the medical (IMeLaS), dental (IDeLaS) research (P-ILaS), veterinary (IVeLaS), nursing
Toshio Ohshiro
available at www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm
(ILNuS) or engineering (ILES) fields, at several levels. Don’t miss this opportunity to add to your knowledge with the didactic course which will be taught by internationally renowned experts, and then the hands-on session. A written examination is the final stage. Once you have finished with the ILLiS pages on the APALMS site, go back to http://www.apalms2012.tw/index.html and browse through Professor Chang’s excellent website for the APALMS meeting itself. This promises to be an outstanding meeting in beautiful and exotic Taipei, and you must not miss it.
End notes The great French poet and dramatist Jean Cocteau wrote; “The poet doesn't invent. He listens.” In the case of Laser Therapy’s nonagenarian Poet Laureate, he didn’t only listen, he acted and indeed also invented. From the delightful ditty gracing a page or two of the occasional issue, we have evolved to the magnificent regular appearance of ‘Kaplan’s Corner’, and I know many readers turn to this section first to see what gems Professor Isaac Kaplan has penned, be they humorous asides, paeans to the mighty CO2 laser, or frankly educational musings on some unusual surgical entity. I would just like to say a very humble, warm, deep and personal “thank you” to Prof Kaplan, not only for his poetry, long may it continue, but also for himself and
Editorial 21:2
EDITORIAL his wife, Masha. As the Mother and Father of the laser world for so many happy years, they have graced innumerable laser meetings and we all owe them a debt of deep gratitude. Finally, as I regularly have to remind you, Laser Therapy is a journal, and we always need papers to keep it going. You would be surprised at the rate of rejections as our reviewers have become more and more demanding in order to keep the standard of the journal up to par with what the referees in PubMed have demanded. Please, let us have your papers, be they case reports, letter to the editor, preliminary studies or full-blown original articles. Always remember that you need to follow the Notes for Contributors (http://www.jmll.co.jp/lasertherapy/jstage/pdf/notes_for_contributors.pdf): if you don’t, there is the strong chance your paper will be returned without going out to review. Remember also we do have a paper template already in Microsoft® Word™ format, and a step-by-step guide on how to write a paper that will at least meet the Laser Therapy style requirements (http://www.jmll.co.jp/lasertherapy/notes/notes.html). So, as we in the northern hemisphere approach the dog days of summer, find yourself a cool spot (or a warm spot if you are in the southern hemisphere), get writing, and send us an article. Tokyo, June 2012
91
available at www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm
LASER THERAPY MARCHES ON! Toshio Ohshiro
My dear friends and colleagues, faithful readers, welcome to the second issue of the 21st volume of Laser Therapy. If I look back 23 years, nearly a quarter of a century, to March of 1989, the first words I ever wrote in Volume 1 No 1 as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the journal were; “Laser Therapy is on the march!” In fact, I wrote more or less the same for the Editorial to the first issue of Volume 14, back in April of 2005, when we resurrected the journal and its masthead from the disrepair into which it had fallen. Back then, we had 48 pages per issue and, true to my promise, we first increased the page count to 60, and now it is up to 84 pages, so we are indeed still on the march. In 1989 the journal was the official organ of the International Laser Therapy Association, ILTA, and then for a while, the World Association for Laser Therapy (WALT). In 2005, however, we were the official journal for no association, but now we proudly count 6 journals who use Laser Therapy as their official organ, which started with the International Phototherapy Association (IPTA) from Volume 15, issue 4, to which have been added the International Society for Laser Surgery and Medicine (ISLSM), the World Federation of Societies for Laser Medicine and Surgery (WFSLMS), the Asian-Pacific Association for Laser Medicine and Surgery (APALMS), the Japan Society for Laser Reproduction (JaSLaR) and the Japan Association for Laser Medicine and Sports Science (JALMSS). Probably the greatest step forward in the onward march of the journal was our acceptance for listing in J-STAGE (Japan Science and Technology Information Aggregator, Electronic), and now we can offer articles online up to and including issue 1 of Volume 5 (1993). J-STAGE is working hard to get the remaining volumes scanned and online. All of these journal articles are fully searchable by title, author and keyword. Furthermore, all articles and items in the journal, with the exception of those less than 6 months old at the time of searching, are available freely as open access articles in downloadable and printable PDF files. Those less than 6 months old can be downloaded on a reasonable fee per article basis. We believe this provides
Editorial 21:2
a valuable resource to all those researching the field of photomedicine and photosurgery. A further major triumph is the adoption by JSTAGE of the XML language for indexing journals, and as a result, Laser Therapy has already passed the first 2 of 3 hurdles for indexing on PubMed. This is of course an enormous step forward, and not only will it ensure the journal’s gaining a higher impact factor, but it will also mean that from the final stage of our acceptance, authors and articles appearing in Laser Therapy will be indexed and searchable in PubMed. Laser Therapy is truly on the march!
Safety First Laser Therapy has always prided itself on its dedication to observing and encouraging all safety considerations with lasers and other light sources. This is especially true since the surgical laser societies joined the IPTA in using the journal as their mouthpiece. Japan has a long and proud history of medical laser research and practice, and the Japan Society for Laser Surgery and Medicine (JSLSM), founded in 1979, has always championed the safe use of lasers and light devices. The JSLSM’s commitment to excellence in safety procedures has led to JSLSM’s safety courses being recognized as a valid certification for medical laser users, researchers and engineers by the Koseirodosho, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare which is Japan’s equally stringent equivalent of the FDA in the USA. As part of the Society’s commitment to continuing safety with lasers, the JSLSM undertook the enormous task of putting together a series of comprehensive guidelines for the safe use of lasers in the main fields of laser application in medicine and surgery, including PDT, published as “Safety Guidelines for Laser Surgery and Medicine”. As part of the journal’s own commitment to ensuring the safe and effective use of photosurgery and phototherapy, we have undertaken to have all of these guidelines translated from the original Japanese into English, and with the three sets of guidelines in the current issue on photodynamic therapy
89
EDITORIAL (PDT) in cutaneous lesions photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) and PDT in neurosurgical applications and the use of the laser in periodontal applications, we are completely up to date with all 12 guidelines. My colleagues and I on the Laser Therapy editorial team hope that these guidelines will serve as a basis for any other interested parties who wish to set up their own standards for the safe practice of laser medicine
Laser Therapy volume, date and issue No
and surgery, bearing in mind that these are also the official guidelines sanctioned by the Ministry of Health Labour and Welfare of Japan. For your information, the publishing schedule of all the guidelines up to the present is shown in the following table. For full details of the authors and their affiliations, please use the search facility at https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm/.
Title of Guidelines
Vol. 15 (2006) No. 3
Safety Guidelines for PDT in Early Stage Lung Cancer
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 2
Treatment Guidelines for Endoscopic High Reactive Level Laser Treatment ( HLLT ) of the Gastrointestinal Tract
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 2
Guideline for the Use of High Output Lasers in the Field of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 3
Safety Guidelines for Performing Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) in the Digestive Tract
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 3
Safety Guidelines for the Usage Of Lasers in the Field of Urology
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 4
Safety Guidelines for Lithotripsy Procedures Using Lasers in the Field of Urology
Vol. 17 (2008) No. 4
Safety Guidelines for the Use of High Output Lasers in the Field of Respiratory Tract Surgery
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 1
Safety Guidelines for PDT in the Field of Otorhinolaryngology and Head And Neck Disorders
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 1
Safety Guidelines for Photodynamic Therapy in the Treatment of Early Stage Cancer and Dysplasia of the Uterine Cervix
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 2
Safety Guidelines for PDT of Cutaneous Lesions
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 2
Safety Guidelines for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Laser Applications in the Neurosurgical Field
Vol. 21 (2012) No. 2
Safety Guidelines for the Laser Removal of Calculus
Third ILLiS Initiative during APALMS 2012 With the postponement and then cancellation of the 19th ISLSM congress in Korea, the International Laser Licensing System (ILLiS) initiative planned for that occasion also had to be cancelled. I am now delighted to be able to announce that Professor Cheng-Jen Chang, President of the 14 th APALMS, has very graciously agreed to set aside time for the 3rd ILLiS course during his meeting in Taipei, Taiwan. Please go to http://www.apalms2012.tw/ILLiS.html, where you will also be able to find detailed information on the initiative and the application form to join this course. In
90
available at www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm
brief, for those who may not as yet be familiar with this educational course, the ILLiS initiative was jointly set up under the auspices of the ISLSM and the WFSLMS to provide a course of instruction in basic science, lighttissue interaction and safety for those wishing to use lasers or other light sources in photosurgery and photomedicine. The first ILLiS, held as the IMeLaS initiative, was held in Tokyo in 2009, and the second ILLiS in Suwa City, Japan during the 13th APALMS meeting. The ILLiS initiative has been designed to certify successful and suitably qualified applicants as an International Specialist in the medical (IMeLaS), dental (IDeLaS) research (P-ILaS), veterinary (IVeLaS), nursing
Toshio Ohshiro
available at www.jstage.jst.go.jp/browse/islsm
(ILNuS) or engineering (ILES) fields, at several levels. Don’t miss this opportunity to add to your knowledge with the didactic course which will be taught by internationally renowned experts, and then the hands-on session. A written examination is the final stage. Once you have finished with the ILLiS pages on the APALMS site, go back to http://www.apalms2012.tw/index.html and browse through Professor Chang’s excellent website for the APALMS meeting itself. This promises to be an outstanding meeting in beautiful and exotic Taipei, and you must not miss it.
End notes The great French poet and dramatist Jean Cocteau wrote; “The poet doesn't invent. He listens.” In the case of Laser Therapy’s nonagenarian Poet Laureate, he didn’t only listen, he acted and indeed also invented. From the delightful ditty gracing a page or two of the occasional issue, we have evolved to the magnificent regular appearance of ‘Kaplan’s Corner’, and I know many readers turn to this section first to see what gems Professor Isaac Kaplan has penned, be they humorous asides, paeans to the mighty CO2 laser, or frankly educational musings on some unusual surgical entity. I would just like to say a very humble, warm, deep and personal “thank you” to Prof Kaplan, not only for his poetry, long may it continue, but also for himself and
Editorial 21:2
EDITORIAL his wife, Masha. As the Mother and Father of the laser world for so many happy years, they have graced innumerable laser meetings and we all owe them a debt of deep gratitude. Finally, as I regularly have to remind you, Laser Therapy is a journal, and we always need papers to keep it going. You would be surprised at the rate of rejections as our reviewers have become more and more demanding in order to keep the standard of the journal up to par with what the referees in PubMed have demanded. Please, let us have your papers, be they case reports, letter to the editor, preliminary studies or full-blown original articles. Always remember that you need to follow the Notes for Contributors (http://www.jmll.co.jp/lasertherapy/jstage/pdf/notes_for_contributors.pdf): if you don’t, there is the strong chance your paper will be returned without going out to review. Remember also we do have a paper template already in Microsoft® Word™ format, and a step-by-step guide on how to write a paper that will at least meet the Laser Therapy style requirements (http://www.jmll.co.jp/lasertherapy/notes/notes.html). So, as we in the northern hemisphere approach the dog days of summer, find yourself a cool spot (or a warm spot if you are in the southern hemisphere), get writing, and send us an article. Tokyo, June 2012
91
