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State of Your Journal: A Mid-Year Report of Unprecedented Progress

Traditionally, we share the "State of Your Journal," at the beginning of each new year. At that time we review the progress of the past and speak to the prospects of the future . . . the future of oncology and of The Oncologist.

With this editorial, we amend that tradition. We do so because of recent and unprecedented progress that warrants your attention. This, therefore, is a mid-year "State of Your Journal."

THE ONCOLOGIST CME ONLINE

The Oncologist has received a three-year approval from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide CME activities for AMA PRA category-1 credit. The Oncologist is, to date, the only journal that has received this accreditation from the NIH and 111 credits are freely available, covering most disciplines of oncology medicine, including risk management courses that are often required for the maintenance of medical licensure. In fact, The Oncologist CME Online offers more CME activities in the field of oncology medicine than either The New England Journal of Medicine or Medscape, with new courses continuously being added. Furthermore, this entire educational program is provided at no cost to all registered users of The Oncologist CME Online. This free service is supported by an unrestricted education grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb Oncology, for which we are deeply appreciative.

The growth and development of this powerful educational tool springs from the leadership of our CME editors, Dr. Gregory Curt and Dr. Frank Balis, our CME associate editor, Dr. Charles Sherman, and a dedicated cadre of editorial board members. We also have a prized partnership with Sylvia Scherr, the executive director of CME/CE in the NIH’s Office of Education.

The development—and the gratifying growth—of The Oncologist CME Online bear the fingerprints of you, the readers and CME enrollees who have given us suggestions and encouragement. To you, we are very thankful, but most importantly, we are responsive with the new features you have requested. Features such as:

• The ability for CME registered users to search for available CME activities based on keywords, access completed activities containing the article, quiz and hints, and print credits accumulated in a given year for submission to the appropriate licensing authority;
  
• The ability for CME registered users to e-mail CME articles to colleagues; and
  
• The imminent availability of Nursing Continuing Education (CE) Units.
  

As Dr. Curt said in his December 2001 editorial, "CME Online: For the oncologist from The Oncologist":

"In this, as in other areas of The Oncologist, we turn to you, our readers, for comments, suggestions, and feedback. Let us know what you like and what you do not, so that we can improve the site and learn together [1]."

THEONCOLOGIST.COM

The online readership of TheOncologist.com

• Has increased sixfold since the site was launched in November 1999;
  
• Averages ~100,000 readers per month with ~26,000 unique visitors per month based on weekly metrics;
  
• Has a high percentage (87%) of visitors who view/download Journal content from the current issue and archived section of the Journal;
  
• Has more than 6,500 unique visitors per week typically visiting the website multiple times each week, generating more than 26,000 viewers of web pages each month.
  

The Oncologist’s website (www.TheOncologist.com) is also freely accessible thanks to an unrestricted educational grant from AstraZeneca Oncology. With their generous support, we have been able to add new online features, such as:

• Advanced search functions by author, topic, and keywords;
  
• Instant Medline search;
  
• The ability to E-mail the articles to colleagues with comments;
  
• The ability to download articles directly to "Citation Manager," enabling the reference to be automatically embedded in the most popular reference software programs.
  

All of these helpful features are, of course, predicated on the editorial content of The Oncologist and its supplements that are focused on specific disease areas, and promising new drugs and combinations. We are ever mindful of Dr. Bruce Chabner’s opening editorial, "Back to the Future for Clinical Oncology" February 1996 in which our Editor-in-Chief set the tone and mission for The Oncologist, namely:

"As cancer specialists, we should resist the trend to capitulate our responsibilities in disease management to payers, gatekeepers, and hospital administrators. It is up to us to defend the patient’s needs and rights and to assure that the patient has an advocate. In order to do so, we have to be united and fully informed. We pledge to put the best and latest information on cancer management before our readership, to help prepare them for the future, and to do their best as a team for every patient [2]."

On behalf of our editors and editorial staff, we pledge to keep this faith with you, our readers. You have made The Oncologist your journal. That’s why I am proud to bring you the Journal’s mid-year report on its considerable progress and its unprecedented promise.

REFERENCES

1. Curt GA. CME online: for the oncologist from The Oncologist. The Oncologist 2001;6:486–487.[Free Full Text]
2. Chabner BA. Back to the future for clinical oncology. The Oncologist 1996;1:1.[Free Full Text]

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