otohns.net Conference Coverage 5th Annual Head & Neck Cancer 2000

otohns.net Conference Coverage
5th Annual Conference on Head & Neck Cancer
San Francisco, CA - 2000

"International Online Journal of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery"
Barbara Nesbitt, Executive Editor, MediSpecialty.com interviews
Dr. Brendan Stack of Hershey, Pennsylvania
Audio Link
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Barbara Nesbitt: “I’m Barbara Nesbitt, and I’m in San Francisco at the 5th Annual Conference of Head and Neck Cancer. I have the pleasure of being here today with Dr. Brendan Stack from Hershey, Pennsylvania. Would you tell us a little bit about your website with your online journal?”

Dr. Brendan Stack: “Dr. Neal Futran and myself founded the International Online Journal of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. We have been in continuous operation for almost three years now, and that actually is the longest continuing publication of a solely Internet dedicated journal in the field of otolaryngology - head and neck surgery.”

Barbara Nesbitt: “Very good, now three months ago we launched otohns.net and it’s an international website. You and I have been talking with Dr. Ron Kuppersmith about joining together and possibly putting what you have with what we have and making it available for physicians around the world. Now I know on yours you have some CME’s and I always like to hear about those.”

Dr. Brendan Stack: “Yes, one of the features of our website is that once you enter the registration portion of the website through the left panel navigation bars, you can go to the continuing medical education. What you’re able to do is receive AMA category I CME credit for any article, both in a present issue or any previous issue since the start of the journal that has been designated as a CME article. There’s a bright red CME icon identifying each article that is available for CME. Upon reading the article, you can take an online quiz, and you immediately take an online survey of the quality of the material. Then you’re given the test results from your quiz, and then you’re able to make a credit card transaction and receive your CME credit for a modest fee.”

Barbara Nesbitt: “Very good, the great thing about CME on the Internet, as far as I’m concerned, is it makes it available to physicians that live in countries that don’t require them but who have often asked us to have them available for them because it’s an educational thing. So tell me a little bit about how you think that would help them.”

Dr. Brendan Stack: “The reasons CME’s are required in this country is because it’s been used as a vehicle to sort of formalize the self-education process that all physicians, regardless of where they live, need to engage in order to be current and to provide the best care for their patients. In this regard, the CME is somewhat artificial and peculiar to the North-American physicians but it is a very helpful vehicle available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week to allow physicians to direct their own ongoing education in the fields of their choice and the areas of their interest.”

Barbara Nesbitt: “Now the CME’s are part of what you have on your website right now. You also talk about the journal, where does your material come from for that?”

Dr. Brendan Stack: “All of our journal submissions are original works submitted by authors both solicited and unsolicited from around the world. It’s bi-monthly content, there is usually ten pieces per issue, and they cover the whole array of areas of interest and specialty in otolaryngology head and neck surgery. Occasionally we’ll have a monograph issue, our current issue that is up and about to be changed is a monograph on pathology where all the pathologic lesions of the head and neck are reviewed in detail with online photomicrographs and descriptions catered towards the practicing clinician who wants to review on topics such as parathyroid cancer, thyroid cancer, the diagnosis of lymphoma in the head and neck, and then some of the more common ailments - parotid malignancies and squamous cell carcinoma.”

Barbara Nesbitt: “Do you see this also as a great learning tool for residents?”

Dr. Brendan Stack: “Absolutely, not only is the journal an excellent tool for residents but we actually have a resident section that is written by a resident on our journal. The themes that we have taken in this resident’s section is covering basic topics and basic procedures that are likely to be encountered by a resident on call in the emergency room. For example, the treatment of epistaxis or the drainage of an auricular hematoma, they can very quickly consult on this and get sort of a quick review online at their fingertips prior to encountering some problem like that in the emergency room.”

Barbara Nesbitt: “I find it very exciting and very interesting, and I know Dr. Ron Kuppersmith is very excited about us doing something together. I look forward to doing it.”

Dr. Brendan Stack: “Likewise, and I think from a physician’s standpoint, this is very exciting because our traditional way of disseminating information is based on the printing press, and the printing press technology is hundreds of years old from medieval and post-medieval Europe. As a result, information dissemination is delayed because of the technological issues of printing, and because of the editorial review, which has really stagnated over the last hundred years. By using the Internet as a medium, we can have rolling publication dates, we can have rolling editorial deadlines, and we can have near instantaneous editorial review and dissemination of information. It can all be done online and the result is that the ten, twelve, even twenty-four month publication delays, which many of us have unfortunately gotten accustomed to, can virtually be eliminated, and I hope that people embrace this technology. As an Editor of this journal, I would say the biggest stumbling block I’ve had has been contributors’ concerns that their material will be: (1) available in the future, (2) indexed on index Medicus, and (3) accepted by their universities as being placed in a peer review journal for promotional purposes. I think we’ve made a lot of strides in that area, and there are a lot of perceptions that we still have to deal with but I feel confident we’ll be able to address those in the future.”

Barbara Nesbitt: “Thank you very much doctor, it was a pleasure talking with you.”