Burgeoning Online Medical Journal Gains Readers, Submissions

Citing increasing requirements for scholarly activity, Richard A. Robbins, MD, and the Arizona Thoracic Society Chapter created the Southwest Journal of Pulmonary & Critical Care in 2010. The online, “broad-based” journal publishes the Proceedings of the Arizona Thoracic Society, original research in pulmonology, critical care, and sleep medicine, as well as case presentations, chest imaging and pathology for clinicians, editorials, and reviews.

At press time, the SWJPCC had published a total of 87 manuscripts. When the journal launched in November 2010, it received 30 unique visitors, Dr. Robbins says. In March, it recorded 1,574 unique visitors.

“Both faculty and fellows, and to a certain extent residents, are encouraged by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to do scholarly activity…yet, there just isn’t enough time to do that,” says SWJPCC editor and manager Dr. Robbins, a retired clinician and professor who serves as the councilor of the Arizona chapter. “One of things that these kids can do is publish case presentations and small series. This website is a place for them to publish those types of papers.”

The editorial board represents specialists in pulmonology, critical care, sleep, cardiology/statistics, chest radiology, and ethics. It began with ATS members in Tucson, Ariz., but quickly grew to include doctors from Phoenix, Scottsdale, Denver, Boston, and Albuquerque.

Dr. Robbins was a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Arizona and the chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the Phoenix VA and director of the pulmonary/critical care fellowship at the Good Samaritan/VA combined program until he retired in 2011.

These days, he’s taking online courses in website design.

“I probably spend about a half a day, five to six days a week on this, Dr. Robbins says. “The thing I’ve learned is you’ve got to pay attention to everybody else. This is a group effort, and it’s nice to have people keep you on the straight and narrow.”