In February, we held the annual Cardiovascular Research Technologies (CRT) meeting in Washington, DC. With 1500 attendees and 280 world-renowned faculty members, the meeting was a huge success and was favorably covered in the electronic media. The meeting presented the latest developments in cardiovascular technology, clinical techniques, regulatory issues, and science-related topics in the field of interventional cardiology.

Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine ( CRM ) is the official journal of the CRT meeting; the journal’s editorial board consists of selected faculty from the meeting, the journal is distributed to meeting attendees, and the top abstracts are always published here. This year, the editorial board met at CRT and a report was disseminated regarding the journal’s growth. As always, our intent is to grow CRM into a premier, high-quality journal. The journal’s expansion to six issues annually and the addition of ‘in press’ articles have helped to expedite the publication process and to eliminate backlog. To this, we are able to keep in closer contact with our readers and to respond more quickly to scientific events as they occur.

A common question being asked is, ‘Why are there so many cardiology journals and who has time to read them all?’ The answer depends on the quantity and quality of the manuscripts and their access to publication. Leading cardiology journals such as Circulation , Journal of the American College of Cardiology , and European Heart Journal have acceptance rates of <10%. Sometimes a manuscript circulates in the cascade of journals waiting for acceptance following an intensive review and the author experiences submission fatigue. Many good manuscripts are lost to press this way.

Furthermore, more than 100 original abstracts and 700 presentations were featured at this year’s CRT meeting. Many of these abstracts and presentations merit publication, thereby exposing the authors to a larger audience, and efforts should be made to document any important work in a manuscript format that will be indexed and disseminated globally. Even if not read instantly, the article will be indexed and accessible when needed. If not published, even the most revealing studies will not count. CRM remains a platform for original, high-quality work that seeks press.

Another question being asked is, ‘What role will a printed journal play in the era of e-readers and electronic media?’ Electronic media and blogs have experienced exponential growth recently and while these are fantastic tools for getting the news more quickly, they lack the peer review process and lack control of the study methodology and accuracy of their results. As such, electronic media cannot replace a printed, peer-reviewed journal.

In a decade, will we still be attending cardiology conferences and holding printed journals in our hands or will information simply be streamed to our iPhones and iPads? A few years’ back, an attempt to convert printed posters to e-posters failed. Attendees and poster presenters missed the interaction and therefore opted out of the conversion, instead choosing to keep the original format.

Focused, multidisciplinary meetings like CRT foster personal, intimate interactions among faculty, attendees, and peers who wish to share and discuss their experiences in person. These types of meetings cannot be substituted by the best interactive websites. Similarly, reading clinical trial results in a true medical journal cannot be substituted by bloggers.

In the future, modes of communication will transform. This process can be successful only if old, printed papers and cardiology conferences are integrated into webcasts and cell phone applications. The quality and credibility of the information cannot be compromised through this hybrid integration, however. The CRT meeting, http://www.crtonline.org , and the CRM journal will attempt to fulfill this integration mission and we call upon our readers to attend the meeting, visit the website, and submit manuscripts.