Welcome to Our New Editorial Board Member, Dr Linda Nield

If you are a regular reader of this journal, you've probably enjoyed articles on a number of topics that were written by Dr Linda S. Nield. I'm pleased to announce that Dr Nield has recently joined the editorial board of Consultant For Pediatricians, and I would like to extend to her a warm welcome.

The range of topics that Dr Nield has tackled over the past several years--from clavicle fractures; to the dangers of trampolines; to colic, chronic cough, and asthma; to vaccines (she wrote the articles that appeared in our September special vaccine issue)--reflects her broad experience as a practicing pediatrician and as a teacher of medicine. (The article on strabismus that begins on page 17 of this issue also carries her byline.)

Dr Nield earned her medical degree in 1990 at Dartmouth Medical School and did her pediatric residency at West Virginia University (WVU) School of Medicine. At that same institution, she has served as an instructor, assistant professor, and adjunct assistant professor and currently is associate professor and attending pediatrician at Ruby Memorial Hospital. When Dr Nield is not teaching at the medical school, she practices medicine in Morgantown at the Pediatric and Adolescent Group Practice and also at WVU Cheat Lake Physicians. In her spare time, she chairs the resident/medical student section of the West Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

I'd also like to thank Deepak Kamat, MD, PhD--long-time editorial board member of this journal--for "introducing" us to Dr Nield. Drs Kamat and Nield had worked together at WVU (before he left for Wayne State University in Detroit) where they began to collaborate on writing projects. They have subsequently coauthored dozens of published articles. Dr Kamat describes his colleague as "a skilled writer, a 'fantastic' teacher, and an exceptionally devoted mother of 2 beautiful children."

Dr Nield's perspective as an academician and as a practicing pediatrician makes her well qualified to serve with the other distinguished physicians on our editorial board as one of our key advisers. We will rely on Dr Nield's input to help us keep this journal focused on bringing you information that's concise, to-the-point, and well illustrated and that you can put to good use in your daily practice.

To that end, we've added some new editorial features that we hope you are enjoying. We've recently introduced an "x-ray quiz" in which pediatric radiologist Eva Rubio, MD, helps you hone your skills at interpreting radiographs.And we've stepped up our coverage of genetic disorders: next month, we'll bring you the latest case by Golder Wilson, MD, PhD, that feature's new series editor. (Please see the e-Photo Quiz on page 43 for a sneak preview.) We are also publishing more cases involving possible medical conditions that can mimic signs of child abuse.

And we are constantly on the lookout for good teaching cases, like the ones that appear in Photoclinic (page 38) or in our Case in Point feature (page 31). So . . . let me extend an invitation to all of you who read and enjoy this journal.

If you've got a case that you'd like to present to the 62,000 clinicians (pediatricians, pediatric nurse practitioners, and pediatric physician assistants who receive this journal every month), please e-mail us a word document with the relevant details. Please send any images separately as JPEGs or TIFFs. You can send your cases to me or my colleague, Linda Geisler. Our e-mail addresses are SKweskin@cmp.com and LGeisler@cmp.com.

Don't worry about formatting the case: once it has been favorably peer reviewed, our editors will style the content and will send you a prepublication draft for your review and approval.

We hope you like what you are seeing in this journal every month--and that when you next see a patient whose case offers new clinical insights, you'll send us the details. *

Welcome, Dr Nield.

---- Susan Kweskin Group Editorial Director