gms | German Medical Science

2011 sees the periodical of the Society for Medical Education (GMA) in its 28^th year, a long and successful story which goes back to the self-publication of the first issue of Medizinische Ausbildung (Medical Education), followed by “Medical Education - supplement to the periodical ‘Das Gesundheitswesen’” with Thieme Publishers. And most recently in its online incarnation “GMS Periodical for Medical Education”.

The first periodical appeared six years after the foundation of the society in May 1984, back then under the editorship of Prof Dietrich Habeck from Münster. The aim was to set “impulses for the necessary scientific engagement with questions and problems of medical training, professional development and continuing education while at the same time offering ideas for the development and application of new concepts and methods in teaching” [1], for the first time in a German-language publication. The topics of the first edition appear as current today as they were then - problem oriented learning, simulated patients, examinations, practical training. The cover graphic of the periodical consists of a woodcut showing an anatomy lecture by Mondino di Luzzi in the 13^th century - itself a key moment in medical education as Mundinus in 13^th century Bologna was one of the first people who had permission to teach anatomy by dissecting a dead body, thus laying the foundation for practical anatomy and preparation.

Henry Walton, the then president of AMEE (Association for Medical Education in Europe) and president of WFME (World Federation of Medical Education) had been asked to write the foreword for the first publication. But it arrived too late and did not get printed until the year after, the first issue of 1985. Walton’s letter, which at short notice found its way into the first issue is all the nicer and more authentic for that. Subsequently “Medical Education” regularly contained summaries of Medical Education.

“’Medical Education’ – the organ of the Society for Medical Education with a new look: is image important?" was a question posed by the second editor, Prof Florian Eitel, in his editorial in the 15th year of publication [2]. As part of professionalisation the periodical was placed under the aegis of the periodical “Das Gesundheitswesen” from 1998 onwards and printed as a supplement to it by Thieme Publishers. Unfortunately the indirect goal at the time of being cited in Medline could not be achieved as appendices and supplements could not be included automatically.

22 years old, Medical Education moved home for a second time, this time to German Medical Science (GMS), which had been founded jointly by the AWMF, DIMDI and ZBMed as a publisher and online platform. The post of editor traditionally remained linked with the position of head of the organisation and thus moved to Prof Eckhart Hahn. The great advantage of the new publishers was the opportunity to publish all articles online, in their entirety and with open access [3].

This was a timely change but ultimately led to the previously published periodicals being forgotten as they were not retrospectively digitised and made available. This led the GMA to instigate, under the leadership of Dr Thomas Shiozawa, the digitisation of the first 21 years of publications. Since December 2010, all issues of the periodical have been available via the GMA homepage. All articles are available in PDF format and arranged by year and issue. As they have been scanned as text, this means you are also able to search these documents for keywords.

Just recently the new GMS Periodical for Medical Education has taken a quantum leap forward - as of 24^th March 2011 it has been admitted to Medline/Pubmed! The most important goal for securing the future of our publishing house has therefore been achieved and we hope it will inspire our authors even more to submit high-quality articles. Registration with Thompson/Reuters at the ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) is included in this, which means the periodical will gain an Impact Factor in the foreseeable future as well.

Our sincere gratitude for this project goes especially to Mr Markus Dietzel who undertook the laborious task of scanning. And we would like to thank Mrs Herrmannsdörfer of the GMA offices who maintains and populates the archive homepage.

We hope all readers of the GMS Periodical for Medical Education and the old Medical Education periodical will have a good time routing aroung around, may there be many an illuminating moment!

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.