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(Circulation. 2004;110:3.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

The Eagle’s View, or How to Use This Journal

Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD

From Boston University School of Medicine, Mass.

Correspondence to Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, Boston University School of Medicine, Circulation Editorial Office, 560 Harrison Ave, Suite 502, Boston, MA 02118. E-mail circ@bu.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Circulation has always held a special place in my continuing education. For me and for many of us, it is the venue to which we turn for the most cutting-edge observations to inform our clinical practice and guide our research efforts. As the practice of cardiology has grown more fragmented and its research underpinnings grown more complex, however, the breadth of information has expanded to overwhelm the capacity of most of us. In addition, with this expanding universe of cardiovascular knowledge, Circulation has adapted to an ever-wider audience. These changes have been challenging to address for a journal that prides itself on being all things to everyone in cardiovascular medicine and research.

When I began my career, cardiology was a specialty that one could understand broadly, and cardiologists were often, if not always, excellent generalists in both internal medicine and the subspecialty. Moreover, cardiovascular investigators were also broadly competent in, or at least understood, the essential techniques and experimental approaches of cardiovascular research. Like eagles, cardiologists and cardiovascular investigators soared above the landscape, scanning it for what was relevant to their needs as well as what stimulated their curiosity.

Subspecialization is a natural, if not inevitable, consequence of the evolution of scientific fields that incorporate increasingly complex technologies. Learning and maintaining proficiency in these technical skills require time and commitment, whether it be in the field of echocardiography or in proteomics. Since the founding of Circulation, the rate at which new knowledge is being generated and disseminated has become . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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