A truly new view from the summit: from translational science to outcomes research in clinical arrhythmology.

A new year brings invariably reflections of past achieve-ments and some peering into the future. This year, theJournal begins its 13th year with a new look. The newcover dwells, perhaps very briefly, on the long journey ofclinical cardiac arrhythmology, but mostly symbolizes atruly new vision of the future of our field. We have comefar from the diagnostic recording science of our pioneeringearly teachers. Only 20 years ago, we were actuallysearching for acceptable terminology to describe defibrilla-tion therapy among ourselves and the term implantablecardioverter–defibrillator or ICD was first proposed [1].Adoption of the term defibrillator into day to day speechoccurred within a decade. Today, clinical electrophysiologyhas assimilated basic and translational science-, medicaltechnology-, and evidence-based medicine with astonishingspeed. Arrhythmia courses for the clinical practitioner usedto be initiated often with electrocardiographic diagnosis,fundamentals of biostimulation, or clinical pharmacology ofantiarrhythmics. Now, there is a very different flavor. Westill continue to discuss these core subjects, but mainstreamdiscussions include translational science, genomics, clinicalsyndromes with interwoven discussions of cellular andclinical electrophysiology, medical and surgical interven-tions, and invariably consolidate information in anevidence-based approach [2–5]. Sudden arrhythmic deathsyndromes now regularly appear in media discussion, withpublic awareness being driven by lay groups [6, 7]. Whileindividual interventions continually wax and wane inpopularity, it is clearer now than ever before that cardiacarrhythmology has found new frontiers for exploration.This journal, as expressed by both cover and content, iscommitted to bring these to you.Since the inception of the Journal, we have been focusedon web-based access to content through institutional andindividual access. Multimedia submissions were introduced3 years ago and are continuing to grow. We have continuedto streamline our processes to bring information to readers ina timely manner. Our web-based approach has beenstrengthened with the appointment of Dr. Turakhia asAssociate Editor for Online Content. We are expanding theonline commitment to include an Online Journal Libraryand Blog. Online access to the journal is allowing access forreadership worldwide and is a membership feature formembers of affiliated organizations such as the EuropeanCardiac Arrhythmia Society. As noted in past commentaries,this journal was among the first to adopt online submissionand review. Time to first decision from manuscript submis-sion in 2009 was 26 days. Time from acceptance to onlinepublication and indexing is now less than 3 months.Our relationship with the European Cardiac ArrhythmiaSociety continues to promote one of the original funda-mental aims of the Journal, namely, to widen disseminationof new information in this field. Scientific presentations attheir annual meeting are abstracted in the Journal. Fosteringsuch initiatives permits researchers and practitioners ofcardiac arrhythmology, who may have either been geo-graphically less represented in medical publications or havemore limited access to them, to join in a global informationexchange.As we enter a new period where the greater visibility ofthis field now has a more impressive and an immediateimpact on those whose interests we serve, it becomesincreasingly incumbent on medical publications to providecritical and balanced content. The Journal is a member ofthe HEART group of medical editors and subscribes topolicies approved by the group. This has, in the recent past,