World Federation Update: Strategic Initiatives from Florence to Durban

Article Outline

• Copyright

The 10th Quadrennial Meeting of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine (WFSICCM) was held in Florence, Italy, last August 28 to September 1, 2009. Hosted by the Italian Society of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Therapy and led by the steering committee chaired by Luciano Gattinoni (Milan), and his associates A Raffaelo De Gaudio (Florence), Antonino Gullo (Catania), and Rosalba Tufano (Naples), the delegates represented 96 countries and numbered more than 2000. The meeting was co-sponsored by the World Federation of Critical Care Nurses and the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS); the increasing collaboration of national, international, and regional critical care societies has been an objective of the WFSICCM, and the Florence meeting exemplified this important collaboration.

The Congress's Honorary Chairman, Dr Max Harry (Hal) Weil (USA) was honored by receipt of the WFSICCM's Lifetime Achievement Award. Special recognition was afforded to Dr Jean-Roger Le Gall (France) who received the WFSICCM's Distinguished Service Award. Dr Jun Takezawa (Japan), a former member of the WFSICM Council and a dedicated member and recognized leader of the organization and of the worldwide critical care community, who lost his battle with esophageal cancer, received the Distinguished Service Award posthumously; his wife and daughter accepted the award on his behalf and in his memory.

WFSICCM Council elections held during the Congress at the first General Assembly upheld the organization's mission to represent all continents and hemispheres. The new Council is listed in the current Journal; please note new members from Belgium, India, South Korea, Canada, China, Chile, Italy, and Mexico. The new President, Dr Edgar Jimenez (USA), asked Drs Sats Bhagwanjee (South Africa) to represent the WFSICCM 11th Quadrennial 2013 Congress venue in Durban, South Africa, and Khalid Shukri (Saudi Arabia) to represent the WFSICCM co-sponsored Pan-Arab Annual Congress in Dubai, UAE. This further reinforces the WFSICCM's commitment to sponsor regional, national, and international critical care conferences to ensure international communication and collaboration; there is and can be no more important goal for international CCM in our global community. Informal discussions with Australian, New Zealand, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean colleagues concerning H1N1 flu made European and American physicians aware of the challenges to be faced in combating and managing this occasionally complex and fatal critical care illness. Early reports in the United States confirm the vulnerability of the young and healthy to this aggressive and dangerous disease variant.

In addition to Council elections, the General Assembly ratified WFSICCM membership for the following organizations:

This election increases the WFSICCM membership to 55 national or pan-national critical care organizations representing approximately 53 000 members; a global community of critical care professionals.

This edition of the Journal continues with a combination of electronic and print publishing in an attempt to provide timely and important contributions to the literature. It contains a listing of the 2009 reviewers, and I would like to thank all individuals involved with the critically important peer review process. I recognize the dedication of all our reviewers and hope that when the JCC requests your participation you will agree and join the group listed in this edition. I have just received a reply for an author whose article was rejected, and it increases my debt to the expertise, commitment, and participation of JCC's volunteer reviewers. There is no honor and glory associated with the editorial process; however, the integrity of our reviewers cannot be questioned. The author in question understands the peer review process but is frustrated by the possibility that the Journal does not have the appropriately informed and regionally sensitive reviewers. The only way in which our publication can address this potential deficit is for additional practitioners to respond in a positive manner to invitations to review for the Journal, especially those individuals whose practices enhance its international focus and competence. I look forward to working with more of our members as the World Federation's Journal addresses the needs of our community. It is important to understand regional, nation-specific, and critical care adaptations in resource-constrained environments. Often, innovation does not appear to be “scientific” by traditional publication standards, but I shall make every effort to publish those manuscripts in which internationally applicable information is highlighted.

In the electronic section of this issue, please not the newly released Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) Retraction Guidelines. A significant editorial responsibility is to ensure the peer review integrity of all published articles. Despite our best efforts, there will be occasional instances in which a manuscript is accepted for publication only to be seen in similar form in another venue. This is a difficult situation and one that faces all editorial review boards. The JCC will be following the COPE guidelines on “Retractions,” and I urge all subscribers and authors to review the information. In the next few months, more complete disclosure forms will be required by the leading medical journals to protect further the integrity and objectivity of published works. JCC is a member of COPE and will adhere to the highest publication and peer review standards.

The Journal of Critical Care is proud to be the official journal of the WFSICCM and the SCAI. This edition contains the names of the reviewers who have worked diligently to provide the best available advice regarding acceptability of a manuscript for publication and its potential impact on the critical care community. I would like to thank each for timely, erudite, and complete reviews that ensure the JCC's continued legitimacy and value. I look forward to a successful year ahead and anticipate an increasing submission rate; this year, the total number of reviewed abstracts will exceed 300 for the first time.