Editorial

BJA Education does not usually publish editorials or correspondence. In 17 years and 110 volumes there have been only six editorials in BJA Education and its previous titles, CEACCP and CEPD Reviews, and only 10 errata or corrigenda. The editorials have been to inform readers about the existence of the journal or significant changes to its content or name. The appointments of a new Editor-in-Chief and a new publisher, Elsevier, have just coincided, and the time is right to remind us all of just how far BJA Education has come in a short period of time, and to reflect on future directions.

It was determined by the Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) in April 2000 that participation in continuing education and professional development (CEPD) was obligatory for all career-grade anaesthetists in the UK, as an essential part of clinical governance and in anticipation of the General Medical Council’s plans for the introduction revalidation for doctors.¹ The College also recognised that there was an unmet need for published material to support continuous education and professional development of specialists in anaesthesia, critical care medicine and pain management. Shortly thereafter, the RCoA asked the BJA, as their official journal, to oversee editing and production of a journal to address this need. Dr Ralph Vaughan, then RCoA vice president, chaired the board of the new journal, BJA CEPD Reviews, and Professor David Rowbotham was appointed Editor-in-Chief. This was recognised as a joint venture between the College and the BJA in collaboration with the Intensive Care Society and the Pain Society. The idea was that BJA CEPD Reviews should contain relatively short, didactic, and authoritative articles accompanied by self-assessment multiple choice questions (MCQs) and with a senior author who was a recognised specialist in the relevant field.² The initial editorial team of nine UK-based anaesthetists was assembled and the first meeting was in Leicester in September 2000. Terms of reference and a guide to contributors were agreed, including that articles should be pitched at the level of a prize-winning final Fellowship essay and submitted on a 3.5ʺ floppy disk (how times change!). A list of articles to be commissioned was agreed for the first two issues, with a fabulously short timetable: copy deadlines for agreed, edited, and finalised articles were the end of October and December 2000 for the first two editions, respectively. Remarkably, and as a testament to the skill and dedication of all those involved, the first edition was published to schedule in February 2001. The first article in the first edition was on anaesthetic breathing systems by Professor WW Mapleson, and the journal was up and running.

Under the expert guidance of David Rowbotham (2000–2010) and Jeremy Langton (2010–2017) it has gone from strength to strength. BJA Education is part of the established BJA brand. Its close relationships with the RCoA remain and it is well regarded (and read) by 18,000 College members as well as increasing numbers worldwide. Our editorial office is based in the College. In addition to being the official continuing professional development (CPD) journal of the (now) Faculties of Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, it is endorsed and supported by the College of Anaesthetists of Ireland and the Hong Kong College of Anaesthesiologists. The increasingly international scope of BJA Education is reflected in the readership, authorship, and composition of the Editorial Board. We now have 21 board members with representatives from the USA, Canada, Ireland and The Netherlands, as well as the UK. We now publish monthly. In 2017, BJA Education articles were downloaded in 223 countries with an average of almost 250,000 downloads per month. In addition to the core readership of approximately 18,000 members of the RCoA, we have >1,300 other members or personal subscribers, 700 institutional subscriptions and c. 4,000 institutions with access to BJA Education via publishing consortia.

Since this is a remarkable success story, why the need to reflect? Our raison d’être remains essentially unchanged and includes education and continuous professional development. These overlap, but whereas Continuing Medical Education (CME) has traditionally implied classroom or lecture theatre-based activities aimed at updating practice, continuing professional development is broader in scope. CPD aims to help practitioners acquire and maintain the requisite knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviour consistent with the tenets of life-long learning. For anaesthetists and those in related disciplines, this includes all things relevant to their daily professional practice, including leadership, communication and negotiating skills, team working, quality assurance as well as practical skills, new techniques, and ‘education’.

The remit of BJA Education unashamedly includes CPD. An appropriate mission statement would be ‘Improving patient care through supporting continuing professional development in anaesthesia, critical care, pain and perioperative medicine’. This has been discussed by the BJA Education board, but is not yet finalised at the time of writing. However, education is clearly part of our remit; the clue to this is in the title! As most of us are aware, reading a CPD-based journal is just one part of the CPD process, which requires that learning be self-directed, documented, include reflection and review, cover the whole scope of an individual’s practice, and should be used to set development goals and objectives. It is also closely linked for UK-based doctors to the General Medical Council’s stipulations for revalidation, professional registration, and the ability to practice medicine.

As part of our new partnership with Elsevier, you will see some changes to the journal layout. We will continue to offer self-assessment MCQs linked to CPD certification to enable you to use as part of your CPD portfolios, but other developments are in hand, including the addition of learning objectives as part of each article. Work is underway, in conjunction with the RCoA and our publishers, to improve electronic access to the MCQs and linkage to CPD recognition. The initial focus will be on College members, but we hope to enable CPD certification more internationally in the future. Other developments under consideration are to include greater coverage of some of the broader components of CPD as detailed above, and to attract even more authors and readers from outside the UK where appropriate. However, there is no intention to change the basic formula. An alternative motto might be ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

I am honoured and privileged to have taken over as Editor-in-Chief from Jeremy Langton. He, David Rowbotham, and the editorial teams past and present have done a tremendous job in bringing BJA Education to its current position of strength. It is also a real credit to our partner organizations and I feel reflects very positively on UK anaesthesia.

I hope that you will continue to enjoy BJA Education. You may be relieved to know that we do not plan to publish correspondence, editorials only when really necessary, and hopefully no errata or corrigenda! However, I am happy to be contacted via bjaeducation@rcoa.ac.uk or jt23@le.ac.uk.