Moving Healthcare Forward
Authors: Lorna Stimson
Journal: Advanced Healthcare Materials (2014)

As we look forward to 2014, it is inevitable that we reflect on our progress over the last twelve months. In its second year, Advanced Healthcare Materials has built on a successful inaugural year of publication. In 2013, we were pleased to be accepted for listing in the Web of Science and SCOPUS, complementing our inclusion in MEDLINE and making Advanced Healthcare Materials more accessible and discoverable for all. We started 2013 on a high note with our first ever Special Issue, the Future of Nano- and Microscale Materials for Healthcare. Guest Edited by Prof. Ali Khademhosseini and Prof. Nicholas Peppas, the issue provides an excellent overview of the state of the art for biomedical materials at the nanoscale. We are indebted to Professors Peppas and Khademhosseini for all their hard work in bringing this together. Last year, five new members were appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board for Advanced Healthcare Materials. One of the most respected pioneers in the field of biomedical engineering, Prof. Peppas from University of Texas at Austin follows a multidisciplinary approach that blends modern molecular and cellular biology with engineering to generate the next-generation of medical systems and devices for patient treatment. Prof. Catherine Picart from the Grenoble Institute of Technology specializes in the use of layer-by-layer films as a tool to control cellular processes from adhesion to differentiation, and their applications to musculo-skeletal tissue engineering, drug delivery, and cancer therapy. Prof. André Nel is the Chief and founder of the Division of NanoMedicine at UCLA. His chief research interests are nanomedicine, nanotechnology environmental health and safety, and nanobiology. Prof. Khademhosseini from Harvard-MIT's Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School specializes in developing micro- and nanoengineered biomaterials to control cellular behavior. Prof. Chunhai Fan from the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences is an expert in the area of biosensors, biophotonics and DNA nanotechnology. We are extremely grateful to these new members, and to the Editorial Advisory Board as a whole for their part in helping to establish Advanced Healthcare Materials as the journal of choice for many researchers specializing in materials science for improved healthcare. Tag cloud of most frequent keywords for paper published in Advanced Healthcare Materials in 2012 and 2013. Over the last year, we have had the pleasure of meeting many of our authors in person. Based in Beijing, José has visited a number of institutes in china, as well as attending the International Advanced Drug Delivery Symposium in Taiwan and the World Congress on Biomimetics, Artificial Muscles and Nano-Bio on Jeju Island, Korea. In connection with the Advanced Materials 25th Anniversary celebrations that started in 2013 and will continue through much of 2014, I toured many of the leading materials science institutes in Korea, which provided a great opportunity to meet both students and faculty and to hold seminars on scientific publishing and the Advanced family of journals. Additional opportunities to get in touch with researchers working in the field came at the European Materials Research Society meeting in Strasbourg, France and the 2013 Advances in Tissue Regeneration Conference in Lattrop, Netherlands. We hope that we'll have more opportunities to meet you next year too. Lorna Stimson, Deputy Editor of Advanced Healthcare Materials, visiting the Gwangju Institute of Technology. Jose Oliveira, Editor-in-Chief, with participants of the 2013 International Advanced Drug Delivery Symposium. Throughout the year we've published a series of review articles that have focused on some of the hottest topics for biomedical materials research including the use of carbon materials for regenerative medicine, applications for quantum dots, magnetic nanoparticles, cell-based therapies for tissue restoration, cell shape and morphology, graphene for cancer therapy, nano and microfabrication of materials for medicine, responsive hydrogels, polymeric nanoparticle gene delivery systems, and graphene-based sensors. These were complemented by research articles reporting state-of-the art discoveries in core topics such as nanoparticles and delivery systems, tissue engineering, scaffolds, and regenerative medicine, and imaging and diagnosis. We look forward to publishing more first-rate research in these areas as well as related fields such as microfluidics, bioelectronics, therapeutic devices, infectious disease and vaccination, wound healing, and personalized healthcare—always focusing on the materials science behind these breakthroughs of course. In the middle of the year, Advanced Healthcare Materials, and other members of the journal family, introduced a new submission system, powered by Editorial Manager. One of our key aims in changing to the new system was to allow us to continue to provide you with a high-quality service. Feedback for the new submission systems has been positive, with several of you telling us that you find it easy to use; we hope that you will enjoy seeing some of the additional features that are being planned to improve the system further. Looking at the Advanced family of journals as a whole, there were many important developments in 2013. In January we saw the launch of two new publications: Particle, a new sister-journal for Small and Advanced Optical Materials. In its third year of publication, Advanced Energy Materials received a first impact factor of 10.043. The newest member of the Advanced family, Advanced Materials Interfaces, has been begun to publish top-quality interfacial and surface science. The first issue of this new journal will be available in February. Finally, Advanced Materials is in the midst of a year of silver jubilee celebrations, including editorial tours of universities and research institutes and a specially commissioned series of review articles focusing on the hottest topics that have developed since the launch of the journal twenty five years ago. As we look forward to 2014, there are many exciting developments on the horizon. In addition to the Wiley Live App that provides news and updates across a range of disciplines, the Advanced Materials iPad app is now available and similar apps for other journals will be launched in the coming year. However, enriched functionality is not going to be limited to the mobile world. In the new year we will also see a change in the ways in which you can read and interact with published papers. Enhanced readcube PDFs already allow you to display more of the relevant data while reading a paper. Wiley's new Anywhere Article format will enhance the reading experience further for people working on mobile devices, notebooks, and of course desktop computers. With our first impact factor scheduled to be announced in June, 2014 will be an exciting year without a doubt. So, we'd like to finish by thanking all our authors, reviewers, and the Editorial Advisory Board for making 2013 such a success and wish you all a very happy and healthy new year!