As I recall the beginning of the American journal of hematology forty years ago
Authors: Ananda S. Prasad
Journal: American Journal of Hematology (2015)

Forty years ago rapid progress was being witnessed in the field of clinical hematology. The discipline of clinical hematology witnessed advances in red cell enzymology, clotting proteins, hemoglobinopathies, immunoglobulins, and functions of the lymphocytes, to mention just a few, yet the practicing hematologists in USA had no hematology journal which they could read, follow and relate to their clinical practice. Only one journal BLOOD was available but this journal was narrowly focused and only basic researchers could relate to the articles published in BLOOD. In 1974, some of us were attending the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Investigation in Atlantic City. A dinner meeting in Atlantic City was organized, which included, besides myself, Drs. George Brewer, Corky Tanaka, Marcel Conrad and Don Harkness and a medical publisher Alan R. Liss. We discussed the possibility of launching a hematology journal which would serve the need of practicing hematologists. There was a great enthusiasm for this idea and Alan Liss offered to publish the hematology journal. We also chose the name American Journal of Hematology for this new publication. I was selected by the group to explore the possibility of launching such a journal. I contacted many academic hematologists in USA. Several were highly enthusiastic for launching a new hematology journal but there were some who were highly skeptical and did not see any need for a new publication. I was very fortunate to get a great support from many highly respected academic hematologists such as Dr. Maxwell Wintrobe, author of famous textbook of hematology, Dr. Don Thomas who later received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Dr. John Harris of Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Robert F. Schilling, well known for Schilling's test, Dr. Victor Herbert and Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, who later served as HEW secretary under President Senior George Bush. We decided to include in every issue high quality research articles, clinical case reports, concise reviews, and editorials on current topic in Hematology. We felt that this format provided the clinical hematologists a broad general picture of the progress being made in the field of hematology. This format also bridged the gap between the basic science researchers and the practicing hematologists who were confronted with the clinical problems they saw in their practice. One other goal of this journal was to publish the submitted articles promptly after thorough and critical reviews were accomplished and the manuscript was finally accepted. The publisher was exceedingly cooperative in these efforts. I will mention a few words regarding our very first issue. The first article was on enzymatic changes in patients with congenital erythropoietic porphyria 1. This was a contribution from the laboratory of a very famous researcher in this field, Professor Cecil J. Watson, who also was my mentor at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Another research article contributed by Dr. Brewer and his colleagues was in the first issue which indicated that zinc deficiency was a clinical problem in the adult patients with sickle cell disease and that zinc treatment of these patients may prove to be clinically beneficial 2. Forty years later, Cochrane Review has concluded that zinc is the only therapeutic modality which decreases the incidences of infections and pain crises in sickle cell disease. Unfortunately, the clinical hematologists are still lagging behind and have not utilized this modality of therapy in the management of sickle cell disease patients. I am truly delighted that the journal is doing exceedingly well under the current leadership.