New Editor-in-Chief

Excerpt

It was about 2 years ago that Dr. Filipi walked into my office and told me of his plans to retire from the clinical practice of surgery and devote all of his efforts to his research. He felt it was only appropriate for a practicing hernia surgeon to be the editor of our journal and therefore wanted to turn the reins over to me. I managed to persuade him to stay on for a little longer as he of course was at the time – and still is – a key player in the arena of hernia surgery because of his vast knowledge of the literature on the subject and his continued involvement in the field that includes such activities such as the directorship of the ILAC Dominican Republic Yearly Surgical Mission to that country to repair hernias in patients who would otherwise not be able to obtain surgical treatment. I argued that I had to at least complete the primary publications resulting from two large randomized controlled trials on various aspects of inguinal hernia management for which I was either principle or co-investigator. He somewhat reluctantly agreed. For most of the 2 years following this conversation I was clever enough to stay out of his line of sight even though our offices are right next door to each other. In the end, however, he cornered me once again and put my feet to the fire and here I am – the co-editor of our wonderful journal. …