In
August of 1997, The Permanente Journal published its first issue.
With this August 2002 issue we celebrate our fifth anniversary! In the
beginning, the physicians, clinicians, and staff of the Editorial Team,
Advisory Board, and Review Board all aspired to become "A Voice
of Permanente." From the Permanente Medical Groups across the country,
individual physician voices spoke into my first editorial: "Permanente
is a group with tremendous resourcefulness, creativity, and care-full-ness
in meeting the challenges ahead, but we need to share amongst ourselves
much more effectively and efficiently." "This journal can
showcase our best work and practices, strengthen the connection among
groups, and influence the direction and nature of change in the practice
and business of health care." "I want to make a real contribution."
"Kaiser Permanente has an obligation to promote research into clinical
practices, set the standards, and communicate through an organ such
as the journal." In the 20 issues of The Permanente Journal
published, we have heard from over a thousand of our organization's
authors, researchers, poets, and painters. I believe we have become
"A Voice of Permanente."
How do
the voices of The Permanente Journal contribute to the future
of health care? The National Academy of Sciences Institute of
Medicine published its second report in March 2001, Crossing the
Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century.1
This report focused on the broader variations and deficiencies in medical
practice today. Their recommendations included: multidisciplinary, team-based
patient care; an infrastructure of information technology; a focus on
a limited number of common, chronic conditions; and evidence-based care
processes supported by automated clinical information and decision support
systems. The Permanente Medical Groups have those components in place
now. The Permanente Journal, as a direct expression of that medical
care in an integrated service delivery model, represents a unique niche
in American medical journals. We select journal articles to disseminate
new advances and contributions to clinical medicine and to elucidate
the processes that embed those contributions into medical practice and
the health care delivery system.
I would
like to thank every person who had even the smallest part to play in
The Permanente Journal living for five years. It took the vision
and will of the Regional Medical Directors and our Executive Publisher,
Jay Crosson, MD, to approve and fund the journal, the expertise of the
Editorial Team to create the journal, and the authors and artists to
give it substance and value. Ultimately, our greatest appreciation is
for our readers, who transfer knowledge into practice to enhance the
health and well-being of both our members seeking care and the people
of our organization delivering that care.
For the
future, I can think of no more fitting way to close than I did in the
first issue: "Members of the Advisory Board, Review Board, and
Editorial Team have a responsibility to carry forward the energy, enthusiasm,
commitment, dedication, long-standing effort and work, aspirations,
and dreams of all physicians, clinicians, and health plan experts so
invested in Kaiser Permanente."2
References
- Institute
of Medicine, Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. Crossing
the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century. Washington
(DC): National Academy Press; 2001. Available on the World Wide Web
(accessed June 4, 2002): www.nap.edu/catalog/10027.html
- Janisse
T. A Voice of Permanente. PermJ 1997 Summer; 1(1);2-3.
