New Year’s Day and the first day of spring are traditional times of new beginnings, but, in many ways, so is fall. It’s a time to get back to work after a leisurely, relaxing summer, and it’s when students return to school. For most businesses, strategic plans and budgets are being prepared for the following year.
At PSP, fall 2006 is definitely a time for new beginnings. Our longtime—and extremely successful—associate publisher, Sharon Fitzgerald, has left us to pursue another opportunity, and we wish her nothing but the best. Our new advertising director is Bridget Blaney, who comes to us with a strong track record in business-to-business publishing.
Readers and advertisers have two upcoming chances to meet Bridget: at the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery meeting in Toronto this month and at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons conclave in San Francisco in October. Please stop by our booth at these shows to give a warm welcome to the plastic surgery industry to Bridget.
Now let me direct your attention to the bottom of this page, where you will find several new names in the list of members of our editorial advisory board. The success of all trade publications depends in large part on support from professionals in the field, and PSP has benefited greatly from the contributions of the outgoing board members. They have my heartfelt thanks.
The new members represent a wide cross-section of aesthetic and reconstructive medicine. Geographically, they represent all of the areas in the United States where plastic surgery is heavily practiced. Some are veteran practitioners, well published and active members of their professional associations, whereas others are relative newcomers but have already attracted much attention for their accomplishments. All have a wide range of professional interests, but have also established themselves as experts in particular subspecialties.
They all have one thing in common: They have already contributed generously to PSP in terms of clinical articles and advice to yours truly. I welcome them wholeheartedly, and I look forward to a long and close association with each of them.
Transitions, of course, are inevitable. It’s essentially endemic to your practice, what with trends in procedures and aesthetics changing practically every year, not to mention staff members, management systems, surgical equipment, and drugs. But change is what keeps you in business, and I don’t mean just changes in people’s bodies that prompt them to come to you. Patients are continually looking for the newest “look” and the least stressful procedure, and they come to you to provide them.
It’s PSP’s job to keep up with changes in the industry, and one of the functions of the advisory board is to help keep the PSP staff abreast of them, if not ahead of them. So welcome again to the new members, and together we will do our best to report on—and even predict—where the field of plastic surgery is going, for the benefit of you and your practice.
