key: cord-0716211-oqo62oay
authors: Bunch, T. Jared
title: State of the Journal 2021: Heart Rhythm Case Reports
date: 2021-01-15
journal: HeartRhythm Case Rep
DOI: 10.1016/j.hrcr.2020.12.001
sha: bc3ea04ce9ae33c17760a05450b7bd63b483977f
doc_id: 716211
cord_uid: oqo62oay

nan

Heart Rhythm Case Reports is completing its seventh year in publication. Now one of four official journals of the Heart Rhythm Society (HRS), this open-access journal continues to endorse the aims of publishing high-quality case reports that improve the care of patients with heart rhythm disorders by advancing research, education, and procedural skill and efficacy.

The year 2020 will historically be defined by the tremendous impact of COVID-19, caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. The journal was well positioned to broadly advance ideas regarding the diagnosis and management of patients infected by SARS-CoV-2 with associated heart rhythm disorders as an open access journal that is case based with rapid review and online publication. Topics among the COVID-19-related publications included the use of mobile continuous telemetry for COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, 1 an algorithm to use intravenous lidocaine to minimize the impact of QT prolongation on patients with COVID-19 treated with chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine in addition to azithromycin, 2 COVID-19 unmasking of Brugada syndrome, 3,4 mechanisms of syncope in a case series of COVID-19 patients with implantable cardiac devices, 5 and the use of an implantable loop recorder for continuous temperature monitoring and management in a patient with SARS-CoV-2. 6 COVID-19 impacted heart rhythm services globally and altered the availability and use of both pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies for arrhythmias. One positive of this negative impact on treatment was the amount of time those interested in heart rhythm disorders had to compose and submit manuscripts. To date, the journal has already received more than 500 manuscripts, with an average monthly submission just under 50 manuscripts/month. To put this in context, our previous highest annual monthly rate of submissions was 33 manuscripts/month. As an editorial board and staff, we are grateful for the tremendous support of the journal by all of you-our authors, reviewers, and readers. As an editor, I am indebted to the many hours of service provided by a dedicated editorial staff, associate and section editors, editorial board, and many reviewers. Our acceptance rate dipped this year to 33%, as some of these submissions received were out of scope of the journal aims, but we are committed to publishing all articles that meet these aims and we are not limited by constraints of page counts or manuscript limits per edition.

We continue to benefit from a rich international contribution to the journal, both in the submission of manuscripts and in the editorial and review process. The top countries represented by publication include, in order, the United States, Japan, China, Italy, and the United Kingdom. We observed nearly a doubling of publications from Italy, the United Kingdom, and Brazil compared to previous years.

This year we said farewell to Dr Rod Tung, who has served as a section/associate editor since the journal launched in 2014. His guidance and direction in the field of ventricular tachycardia diagnosis, management, mapping, and ablation have been key to the success of the journal. Dr Tung will begin a new opportunity as production editor of HRStv, the society's new YouTube initiative. We welcomed back a familiar face to the journal. Dr Daniel P. Morin was a section editor over clinical electrophysiology when the journal was started. He returns as an associate editor after completing his tenure as online editor for the family of HRS journals, and he will oversee submissions related to ventricular arrhythmias and clinical electrophysiology. We are also grateful to have the services of Dr Jonathan Dukes from Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, California, who has joined the journal as an associate editor and will oversee clinical electrophysiology case reports.

The journal continues to enjoy a varied international readership and broad social media impact. The Twitter account has grown from approximately 4900 followers last year to 7366 by December 2020. A corresponding Facebook page is used to reach a different audience and to allow dynamic conversations that may require longer commentary than allowed by Twitter and grew significantly this year from just a few hundred followers to 1239 followers. We continue to look at novel and additional methods to share published manuscripts and disseminate our shared learning and understanding of heart rhythm disorders broadly.

In 2020 we continued the invited series that specifically published cases of very high educational value, entitled "A Case for Education." These cases also include an interactive quiz that can be used for study and article content review. We hope, as the library of questions increases, to use them dynamically on the website to allow self-study of electrophysiology in general and for specific topics.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve all of you as editor-in-chief of Heart Rhythm Case Reports. It remains a pleasure to work for the HRS and promote its mission. HRS has provided me with an extraordinary staff that use their amazing talents to improve the quality of the journal offerings. In this challenging year, I am often reminded that we are better collectively. The journal is better because of all of your collective efforts to submit, review, read, and share. I hope that our product meets your expectations and, if not, I welcome your suggestions for improvement and look forward to another year of learning from each of you.

Inpatient use of mobile continuous telemetry for COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin

An algorithm for managing QT prolongation in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients treated with either chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine in conjunction with azithromycin: Possible benefits of intravenous lidocaine

COVID-19 infection unmasking Brugada syndrome

Medication unmasked Brugada syndrome and cardiac arrest in a COVID-19 patient

Syncope as the presenting symptom of COVID-19 infection

Temperature monitoring with an implantable loop recorder in a patient with presumed COVID-19