ASE's Echo Magazine Expands to Monthly Editions

Abstract

I am excited to announce ASE's decision to expand the popular Echo Magazine to a monthly edition beginning January 2022. This is to increase publication opportunities from our Councils and Specialty Interest Groups (SIGs). Upon receiving the monthly JASE, I have always loved turning to the blue pages section to peruse a variety of ASE-related communications, commentary, wisdom, and perspective statements from the ASE’s President and our Councils. So why are we changing? Starting in 1988, the ASE provided print space in JASE for a “sonographer Page” -- a Cardiac Sonographers’ Communications Section. More recently, as a part of an ASE governance transition and in keeping with our 2019 Strategic Plan (Goal 4 taskforce), the ASE Board formalized pathways and activities for all four of our growing councils (CV Sonography, Peds/Congenital Heart Disease, Circulation/Vascular, Perioperative), to help get their news out to all ASE members. This effort included regular council “blue pages,” monthly writing assignments that rotated amongst the four councils to help their activities flourish. Recently, some crowding has occurred with the development of Specialty Interest Groups (SIGs). Last year, building upon the ASE’s ‘big tent’ initiative to actively engage all users of cardiovascular ultrasound, the ASE Board of Directors established Specialty Interest Groups (SIGs). The current SIG list includes: Critical Care Echo (CCE), Cardio-Oncology, Emerging Echo Enthusiasts (E3), Interventional Echo (IE), and Neonatal Hemodynamics TnECHO (NHTS). And, each SIG was extended the opportunity for blue pages communications. It turns out that there is simply not enough blue page writing space for nine separate groups (councils and SIGs) along with a monthly President’s page and education calendar. JASE is ASE’s crown jewel. JASE’s prominence as one of the world’s premier peer-reviewed cardiovascular journals has become even more firmly established. As quality scientific submissions to JASE have grown, publication space has tightened. ASE will continue to utilize the blue pages to disseminate the president's page, key messages, and our educational calendar and events. Rather than rotating blue pages amongst all the Councils and SIGs, we will move these important communication pieces to the Echo Magazine (https://www.ASEcho.org/EchoMagazine/). This online, open access publication has featured in-depth articles on the field, and has been published only once or twice a year for the last eight years. So, beginning in January 2022, Echo Magazine will be offered monthly. It will support a rolling submission deadline so that all Councils and SIGs may provide information to our members and the external community on an ongoing, timely basis. Through this change, we want to encourage all of our members who are involved in SIGs or Councils to see this as an expanded opportunity to offer written or visual published material for the ASE membership. Currently, each Council and SIG chair may write articles themselves or assign this responsibility to another member of the SIG or Council. Many of these articles relate to the Scientific Sessions, guidelines that the SIG or Councils helped develop, volunteer opportunities, recognizing volunteers in the field, announcing results of surveys, explaining board policy decisions, etc. As a reminder, this isn’t the only way Councils and SIGs can communicate; the fastest method of communicating with members is to post in [email protected] on the Council or SIG’s community forum. In this method members can post questions back to the authors and begin an interactive dialogue. As we move to this new monthly publication, we are establishing a Publications Review taskforce that will oversee the content in the Echo Magazine. Drs. Ben Eidem and Meryl Cohen will head this new oversight body and assure that the content is consistent with the organization’s mission and guidelines. JASE Managing Editor Debbie Meyer, Council Liaison/Membership Director Natalya Read and ASE’s CEO Robin Wiegerink will also continue to be part of the review process. ASE reviewers may add clarifying text if there is information that would enhance the communication to ASE members. Authors will receive a copy of the proof for final review and approval. Guidelines on formatting, word length, and process for submitting are available from our staff liaisons. The organization is grateful to the past contributors to the blue pages and our other members who contribute to the JASE blue pages, as we value their willingness to share their personal and professional insights. We look forward to this new expansion, and are very excited about enhancing the original Echo Magazine so that it becomes a regular, monthly part of the lives of our members. There is much to share about our vital and essential field.Raymond Stainback, MD, FASE, is Chief of Non-invasive Cardiology at the Texas Heart Institute at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston, Texas and associate professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He has been an ASE member since 1994 and is ASE’s current President.