The Editorial Board of the Ochsner Journal is proud to present the October 2001 issue. While at first glance it appears to have the same format as past issues, several novel additions have been made. We are pleased to inaugurate a fascinating section entitled Ochsner Profiles in which we provide historical vignettes on past leaders of our institution and those family members who had a significant impact on their careers. In this issue, Dr. Hector Ventura describes the role that Albert John Ochsner, cousin of Alton Ochsner's father and a prominent physician himself, had in the medical education of Alton Ochsner. We also initiate two other regular features of the journal, medical and surgical case studies. These are fun to read and the answers are provided in the back pages. See how you score!
Recently, we graduated our 2000–2001 class of medical and surgical residents. At the ceremony, Dr. Edward Frohlich gave an inspiring address on medical leadership, which we are happy to present in its entirety. Dr. Frohlich has himself been an inspiring medical leader since he came to Ochsner in 1976.
The medical topics in the October issue are once again quite diverse and demonstrate the wide variety of clinical science interests in our staff. Dr. Daniel Bronfin, the Journal's new Associate Editor of Pediatrics, has written a scholarly discussion of misshapen heads in babies. His description of this interesting and relatively common entity provides both a historical and scientific perspective and makes for fascinating reading.
With the rising cost of medical care, health care organizations are increasingly being called to evaluate the utilization of medical technologies. Dr. Marie Kroussel-Wood and her colleagues at Ochsner, the Medical University of South Carolina, and Pennsylvania State University provide the results of a recent project designed to study this in some detail. Using the familiar ICD-9 and CPT-4 codes, the authors were able to combine and concisely report on utilization of procedures in a way that is likely to help health care administrators and technology development planners identify those areas that can have a broad impact on patient populations.
We all know that exercise is good for the heart, and Dr. Chip Lavie and colleagues of the Ochsner Heart & Vascular Institute provide a very positive message of the benefits of cardiac fitness. Unfortunately, as Dr. Lavie points out, too much of a good thing can sometimes have serious consequences in athletes, which may constitute a message for moderation.
Dr. Susan Vogel, who specializes in Geriatric Medicine, defines the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of an exceedingly common problem in the elderly: urinary incontinence.
The utility of heart biopsy in heart transplant recipients is the subject of this quarter's Under the Microscope by Dr. Ed Beckman of the Department of Pathology and his collaborators in the Department of Cardiology. As a frequent reviewer of liver biopsies, I can certainly relate to the authors' point that less invasive means have yet to be developed that provide the same level of information as does histologic examination.
As in the past, this issue of the Journal is capped off by short reviews of recent articles in the medical literature that are practically based and broad in scope. We hope you enjoy the issue and welcome any comments.
Dr. Robert Perrillo, Editor-in-Chief
- Ochsner Clinic and Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation
