Foreword: Radiology Select Volume 3— Coronary Artery Disease

Dear Radiology Select Reader: We are pleased to introduce the third volume in the Radiology Select series: Coronary Artery Disease. Each volume in the series consists of 20–35 articles on a topic of clinical importance. The articles have been selected by experts serving as guest editors of the volume, from the past 5–8 years of material published in Radiology. We believe that this collection of key articles will be a valuable resource for individuals with subspecialty expertise or for general readers who wish for an in-depth review of the area. Having the key articles together will allow the reader to identify the relationships between articles and to follow the development of trends in research and clinical care over time. We hope that these collections appeal to both radiologists and clinicians. We named the series Radiology Select because as a verb, select reflects the active choice of articles, and as an adjective, it connotes their special value and excellence. We plan to offer Radiology Select on focused areas of imaging once or twice a year. The process for developing these collections begins with the choice of an important area of clinical research that has been a subject of active investigation and ongoing development. We then select an appropriate guest editor, an internationally recognized authority on the topic. This individual will typically be a prolific author of articles on the topic, and thus there may be articles by our guest editor(s) contained within the collection. The guest editor and his or her chosen co–guest editor(s) have the difficult task of appraising the original research and review articles for inclusion in the collection. Selections are based on the guest editors’ judgment, so the list is, of necessity, somewhat subjective. The contents of the volume reflect a somewhat personal view of which are the key articles—not the result of a quantitative determination. Furthermore, it must be recognized that Radiology has published many more fine articles on the subject area than can be condensed into a 20–35-article volume. Some excellent and clinically important articles may, therefore, be passed over and not included. Continuing medical education (CME) is an increasingly important aspect of clinical practice in radiology. Recent American Board of Radiology diplomates, in addition to needing CME, also need self-assessment modules (SAMs) for recertification. We believe that Radiology Select offers a perfect vehicle to provide up-to-date CME to our readers and will help them better understand how research evolves and translates into clinical practice. Therefore, our guest editor(s) will identify key themes of the articles, group them by subject area, and indicate the subject areas that they think will be valuable as SAMs. The articles’ corresponding authors are then contacted and asked to supply questions for CME and SAMs. In this volume, readers can obtain up to 12.5 SAM credits and 12.5 CME credits, allowing for focused learning in subject areas of clinical importance. The online era provides multimedia opportunities for publications. We will exploit this capability by providing audio and video conversations with authors to explore their views on the effect of their work and the work of others in the field with the benefit of hindsight. These conversations will also allow experts to share their thoughts on future developments and the impact of their work on these. In this volume of Radiology Select, guest editors Marc Dewey, MD, PhD, and Albert de Roos, MD, have conversations with several groups of authors to discuss the subject area of Coronary Artery Disease. In keeping with the trend of increasing reliance on electronic publishing, we are offering Radiology Select in three formats: HTML on the Internet, a digital tablet edition, and print on demand. Print on demand is a printed compilation of the articles for those who prefer reading hard copy. The tablet edition is an electronic multimedia document that combines the electronic articles with audio and video; the articles have been formatted to allow viewing on tablet computers such as the Apple iPad and the numerous Android-powered devices. Images can be resized and compared in this format. We also offer an HTML version for viewing with a Web browser. Individual PDFs can be downloaded, and readers can listen to and view the audio and video conversations. The CME and SAM activities are available only through the online version. We thank Drs Dewey and de Roos and their fellow guest editor, Karen G. Ordovás, MD, MAS, for reviewing and selecting the articles collected in this volume. We are especially grateful to the authors of the articles, without whom Radiology Select would not be possible. We believe Radiology Select will prove to be of educational value to our readers.