Introduction to Journal of Image Guided Surgery

It is with great pleasure that I present Issue 1, Volume 1 of the Journal of Image Guided Surgery.

In this age of exponential growth in knowledge and a resulting proliferation of journals, a new publication is not necessarily met with surprise or enthusiasm. Many academicians regard another journal as just more intellectual clutter rather than as a new opportunity.

In spite of these harsh realities, the birth of the Journal of Image Guided Surgery has been exciting and challenging. The particular challenge of this Journal is its two very disparate goals. The first goal is to report and encourage the development of image guidance during invasive therapy. The second goal of the Journal is to define a new form of publication employing the most recent advances in telecommunications to accelerate the dissemination of peer-reviewed information in both electronic and printed formats.

To appreciate the breadth of these goals, we must first define the concept of image-guided therapy and then explore the means to expedite medical communication. J Image Guid Surg 1:1–3 (1995). © 1995 Wiley-Liss Inc.