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Editorial 50th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Paediatric Society and the Evolution of the Hong Kong Journal of Paedaitrics GCF Chan This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Paediatric Society (HKPS). Fifty years ago, paediatrics was not an established specialty in Hong Kong and it was overlooked by the Department of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. It was not until 1962 when Dr. Elaine Field was appointed as the first Professor of Paediatrics then the paediatric service started to emerge as a separated specialty. At that time Prof. Elaine Field helped to organise the HKPS with the initiative to advance the knowledge in child health and care in Hong Kong. She also would like to use HKPS as a prime mover to maintain high standard of child care; to promote child health through public education; and to enhance comradeship among paediatricians. Two years later, Prof. Elaine Field helped to found the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Hong Kong, which is the first training unit for paediatrics locally. Over the years, there are numerous meaningful things that the HKPS has contributed to the local paediatric community and the pubic. As an advocate for child health, HKPS has been engaging actively with different parties including the Government, local health authority, non-government organisations, paediatricians, allied health workers and public, etc. It also organises activities to facilitate education and research such as the Updated Series on Paediatrics and the Annual Scientific Meeting. And for the Hong Kong Journal of Paediatrics (HKJP), it is again part of the effort made by the HKPS in promoting the paediatrics and child health. Around 22 years ago in 1984, the HKPS launched the first issue of the HKJP under the editorship of Dr. Lau Sum-Ping, Sam. It echoes with the vision of the HKPS. Many valuable local child health related information was shared and made known to the local paediatricians under this platform. From 1984 to 1995, HKJP was the official journal of the HKPS and was published twice a year. In 1991, the Hong Kong College of Paediatricians (HKCP) was founded. HKCP is part of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine and it serves as an official accreditation organisation for the training of local paediatricians. Its primary objective is to ensure a high standard of paediatric practice in our community. Since promoting child health and care is a common objective of both HKPS and HKCP, the HKJP has been then becoming an official journal of both organisations since 1996. To distinguish it from its previous form, it was entitled "Hong Kong Journal of Paediatrics - New Series". Prof. Yeung Chap-Yung was appointed as the first editor-in-chief of this new series of HKJP. Gradually, more and more local paediatricians submitted their works to the journal. Since 2002, it has been publishing four times a year. One of the major achievements in this period is the upgrade of our journal to an electronically opened accessed journal. Since then, people around the world can easily access the journal and search for the information published. In recent years, we witnessed a paradigm shift in our journal. More and more authors from China mainland and foreign countries submitted their works to our journal for publication. We welcome such a trend for we are now not only serving our local community but also for the paediatricians in the nearby regions. Another change is that original studies have been replacing case reports as our primary bulk of articles published in each issue nowadays. This definitely helps to uplift the profile of our journal. HKJP is currently indexed in EMBASE / Excerpta Medica, Science Citation Index Expanded and Scopus. Here, I would like to thank our editorial board members, reviewers and overseas advisors for their efforts and contributions. Furthermore, I also would like to thank the authors from around the world in sharing with us their studies and data, this really enriched the scope of our contents. To facilitate and streamline the operation of the HKJP, we reform the Director Board of the journal this year. The function of this Board is to take charge of the operation and financial issues but it will not interfere with the editorial independency and decision of the Editorial Board. Representatives from both HKCP and HKPS are sitting in the Board, together with the chief editor and business manager of the journal. This Director Board can relieve the Editorial Board from the financial burden and conflict of interest issue such as dealing with sponsorship and advertisement. With this reform in structure, I foresee a smoother running in the future. Comparing to HKPS, the HKJP is relatively young. There is still a lot of leeway for improvement and we welcome suggestions and comments from our authors and readers. With all the support from our colleagues, we can surely progress further to a new level.
GCF Chan
Chief Editor |