Newswise — Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, is pleased to announce that Critical Pathways in Cardiology—the foremost periodical resource for information on standardized, " evidence-based" protocols for the management of heart diseases and risk factors —has been selected for indexing by Index Medicus/MEDLINE, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's (NLM) premier bibliographic database.
"Being included in Index Medicus/MEDLINE is a major milestone for our journal, and will further the cause of translating newly demonstrated treatments for cardiac disease into clinical practice," comments Christopher P. Cannon, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of Critical Pathways in Cardiology, who is also a senior investigator in the TIMI Study Group at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "When cardiologists perform a literature search to find answers to everyday clinical questions, they'll be directly linked to the timely, standardized protocols and evaluations provided by our journal."
Critical Pathways in Cardiology becomes one of more than 5,000 journals to be indexed by and included in Index Medicus/MEDLINE. Beginning with 2007 issues, each quarterly issue will be fully indexed, including medical subject headings. Over the coming year, all back issues will be indexed as well.
Index Medicus/MEDLINE is the leading tool for online searching of the health sciences literature in the United States and worldwide. Journals are selected for indexing in Index Medicus/MEDLINE after careful review by the NLM's Literature Selection Technical Review Committee, based on issues such as the journal's scope and coverage and the quality of its scientific content and editorial work. Of hundreds of journals considered each year, only 20 to 25 percent are accepted. Health care professionals and members of the public can access Index Medicus/MEDLINE at http://www.pubmed.gov. Critical Pathways in Cardiology is designed to help cardiologists translate the ever-expanding body of cardiology research into evidence-based clinical practice. "Critical pathways are standardized protocols for the diagnosis and treatment of specific disorders," Dr. Cannon explains. "They are utilized by essentially all hospitals for numerous diagnoses, but most often are used in patients with acute cardiac disorders, such as chest pain or acute myocardial infarction. Now they are used in just about every component of care, including managing diabetes, helping in smoking cessation and many other areas of cardiology." Critical Pathways in Cardiology provides a single source for publication of new research-based pathways, including the research data underlying their use. The pathways are downloadable, and exist in multiple formats " to facilitate use at individual hospitals or office practices. "The emphasis is on practical implementation of the evidence to improve patient care," Dr. Cannon noted.
The journal also presents new research studies evaluating the effectiveness of critical pathways in improving patient outcomes. Critical Pathways in Cardiology's managing editor, Dr. Annemarie Armani noted that the journal focuses on seven topic sections addressing the major areas of cardiology: acute coronary syndromes, interventional cardiology and cardiac surgery, congestive heart failure, arrhythmias, preventive cardiology, general cardiology, and cardiology in the Emergency Department, and current approaches to cardiometabolic risk factors, including new approaches to obesity. Critical Pathways in Cardiology is the official journal of the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Society members and subscribers can access the full content of each issue online at the journal website, http://www.critpathcardio.com.
"Acceptance by Index Medicus/MEDLINE is generally based on a journal's high quality, usability, and acceptance by the cardiology community," adds Dr. Cannon. "Our goal has been to establish Critical Pathways in Cardiology as a premier resource for evidence-based cardiology pathways and quality improvement initiatives, and we think that being searchable by MEDLINE will further enhance our journal's value to all clinicians in the field."###
About Lippincott Williams & WilkinsLippincott Williams & Wilkins (www.LWW.com) is a leading international publisher for healthcare professionals and students with nearly 300 periodicals and 1,500 books in more than 100 disciplines publishing under the LWW brand, as well as content-based sites and online corporate and customer services. LWW is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information for professionals and students in medicine, nursing, allied health, pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry. Wolters Kluwer Health is a division of Wolters Kluwer, a leading global information services and publishing company with annual revenues (2006) of €3.7 billion and approximately 19,900 employees worldwide. Visit www.wolterskluwer.com.
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