Medical Journalism and Emergency Medicine

Introduction: owadays, many researches in the field of medicine are conducting all around the world and medical journalism is a way to share the results. In fact, dissemination of the related manuscripts can prevent the repetitive research or may even lead to conducting a better survey. Therefore high quality medical journals are considered as up-to-date resources for further investigations (1, 2). Medical journals are propagating their papers in various media including television programs, newspapers, internet websites and different social media. So they can influence the government policy makers, health-care professionals and even public (3-5). Moreover, most researchers hear about medical discoveries for the first time through medical journals and their related social media. So as well a high quality journal can help to improve medical science, a journal of poor quality can be damaging and distorting. Indeed, popular journals have the power of inventing a “communication storm” to draw attention to a certain topic. Thus they have to respect the accepted international principles to prevent spreading inaccurate and misleading data (6, 7). This paper aims to review the previous and current situation of medical journalism by focus on field of emergency medicine. History of Medical Journalism: Journalism was considered as an innovation in the field of medicine in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. It was a way to share the researchers' experiences. With progression of the technology, medical journalism became a new element of disseminating medical information and help to accelerate the processes of medical changes (8). History of scientific journalism started by “Journal des Scavans” in Paris, and “Philosophical Transactions” in London in 1665 and both are existing today, after three and a half centuries." Journal des Scavans" was edited by Denis de Sallo and included book reviews, while" Philosophical Transactions" was edited by Henry Oldenburg and involved scientific news (9). The first peer-review collection of medical articles was published by "Royal Society of Edinburgh" in 1731, in Scotland. It seems that it was the start point of the professional medical journalism. They named their journal as “Medical Essays and Observation” which was published in five volumes. But in 1737 they spread their scope and covered the art, philosophy and particularly natural knowledge as well and were identified as Philosophical Society of Edinburgh (10, 11). “Medical Repository” was the first American medical journal, which founded in 1797. It was published quarterly and ceased publication in 1824 after 27 years. Loss of institutional support, prohibitive costs and lack of wishful editors were probably influenced factors on the journal breakdown (12, 13). John Collins Warren along with James Jackson founded “New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery and Collateral Branches of Science" as a medical and philosophical journal in September 1811 and published the first issue in January 1812. After a series of events and because of financial difficulties finally, the Massachusetts Medical Society purchased it in 1921 for 1 dollar and renamed it to “The New England Journal of Medicine” in 1928. This Journal that named briefly as NEJM, is still being published by the Massachusetts Medical Society and is among the most N