The New England Journal of Medicine Celebrates 200th Anniversary in 2012

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In 2012, the New England Journal of Medicine celebrates 200 years of publishing practice-changing medical advances. Throughout 2012, NEJM will mark the anniversary with events, content, and applications that celebrate all those who contribute to and read the Journal, especially recognizing the vital connection between research and practice. The events begin in January with the launch of NEJM’s 200^th anniversary website, and continue throughout the year with the publication of articles invited for the anniversary, the release of a documentary film that narrates three groundbreaking findings that transformed practice, and many more special events.

“Creating a platform for our 200th anniversary that brings all those connections in the community to life is a rare and inspiring privilege, and we look forward to hearing from our readers.”

“I am grateful to the generations of researchers, authors, reviewers, and editors upon whose shoulders we stand,” said editor in chief Jeffrey Drazen, M.D. “As I reflect on the 200^th anniversary of the New England Journal of Medicine, I’m proud of the historic and lasting values of this organization, and the reputation we have earned as a source of trusted and reliable information. In our third century we will continue to deliver the tools physicians need to practice better medicine so we can improve the lives of patients.”

The anniversary reinforces NEJM’s dedication to improving patient care through its mission to bring the best information at the intersection of biomedical science and clinical practice to physicians and other healthcare professionals. NEJM is the most widely read and respected medical journal in the world and is more than a publication — it is a community, from researcher to clinician reader, that works together to bring discovery to practice every day. The 200^th anniversary of NEJM celebrates all who contribute to this mission.

200^th anniversary website and other events

To mark the anniversary, the NEJM anniversary website features

• An interactive historic timeline of medical advances from the last 200 years. This rich timeline links the history of modern medicine to select content in the NEJM Archive. The timeline is also available as an iPad app.
• An invitation to readers to submit an anniversary message, a story about how NEJM has affected them, or a video explaining why NEJM matters or what NEJM means to them.
• An opportunity to vote each month for the most important article in a specific time period, until the end of the year when readers will decide the most important article in NEJM history.
• A Historical Image Challenge, with a new image each week selected from the NEJM Archive.

Coming later this year on the anniversary website, a new 30-minute film will examine the past 200 years of medical progress, focusing on anesthesiology and surgery, cancer, and HIV. The film connects medical groundbreaking research — much of it published in NEJM — to modern medical practice through a series of evocative, interwoven vignettes.

NEJM will also host a 200^th symposium on June 22 at Harvard Medical School. This event will feature noteworthy experts covering a number of important medical topics, with the intent of exploring how medicine has interfaced with society to improve people’s lives over the past two centuries. After the event, the symposium will be available for viewing on the anniversary website.

“NEJM’s role in bringing together a global community of researchers and clinicians to improve the health care of people around the world is worth celebrating,” said NEJM Publisher Tom Easley. “Creating a platform for our 200^th anniversary that brings all those connections in the community to life is a rare and inspiring privilege, and we look forward to hearing from our readers.”

NEJM history

NEJM has published reports from the frontiers of medical science and practice since its earliest days. NEJM documented the first public demonstration of ether anesthesia in 1846, the first full description of a spinal disk rupture in 1934, and the first successes in the treatment of early childhood leukemia in 1948. NEJM also continues to develop new digital ways to connect with practicing physicians and clinicians. Videos in Clinical Medicine, peer-reviewed educational videos introduced in 2006, aim to provide effective clinical instruction. Interactive Medical Cases, introduced in 2009, give users the opportunity to test their diagnostic skills. And the NEJM Archive, launched in 2010, puts the entire collection of published articles at physicians’ fingertips.

To mark this year in NEJM’s history, NEJM has commissioned a series of anniversary articles that will be published biweekly in 2012. These review articles and essays authored by experts in their fields explore the history of medicine, disease, and therapeutics.

For more information on the NEJM’s 200^th anniversary, please visit http://nejm200.nejm.org.