BJS news: new website, new app and the newest impact factor!

IF is out today and BJS is climbing! Although not yet back at the all-time-high in 2008 (at 4.921) it is currently at 4.839.

We are now second overall! (Only after Annals - which continues to decrease considerably, from 7.49 to 6.33 = biggest drop in the category!).

Excluding the others in the "surgery" category (some of which are really not competitors, such as Am J Surg Pathol, Endoscopy and Am J Transplant):

Third place is held by JACS (steady from last year at 4.5),
Surg Obest Rel Dis has increased to 4.12
Ann Surg Oncol, steady at 4.12
Archives declined from 4.4 to 4.1
Surgery declined to 3.3….etc etc

This just to give a few details form the surgical field of the IF.

Good thing is that we are among the very few top surgical journals with an increase (and in IF, when several others see no progress or even continued decline! For what it' worth (yes, IF is not everything) I think it is a sign of the efforts put into the Journal (I hope).

Next year we'll break the 5.0 barrier!

And... the newly refreshed web-page of the BJS is out, please click here for a view!

Finally, and a much awaited tool for BJS readers, is the new BJS app for iPad, which is downloadable at the BJS homepage, or through this link here.

Frontiers | Using Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Improved Decision-Making in Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancer – the Last Clinical Frontier in Surgical Oncology? | Frontiers in Surgical Oncology

Frontiers | Using Patient-Reported Outcome Measures for Improved Decision-Making in Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancer – the Last Clinical Frontier in Surgical Oncology? | Frontiers in Surgical Oncology

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)

Patient reported data (PROMs) is the "new wine" in clinical research. It is not really new, but increased focus on the patient-reported outcomes has gained increased interest from both the point of decision-makers as well as the public itself. Doctors used to make decisions based on the risk-benefit ratio of morbidity/mortality to the gains in health intervention (and off course, still do) but now comes the added value of information obtained from the patient itself. Indeed, it might be so that patients evaluate and appreciate certain risks and benefits different than the doctor, and then this should be incorporated into the decision making process.

From Søreide & Søreide, Frontiers Oncology 2013.

We have currently published to papers dealing with PROMs. One is a perspectives article published in Frontiers in Surgical Oncology (To view the online publication, please click here: article).

Using patient-reported outcome measures for improved decision-making in patients with gastrointestinal cancer – the last clinical frontier in surgical oncology?
Kjetil Søreide^1,2* and Annbjørg H. Søreide³


Front. Oncol. 3:157. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2013.00157


The other one is an article investigating PROMs in patients undergoing ERCP. In short, although a high number of patients experienced pain during the procedure, the vast majority were satisfied with the procedure and treatment. However, the findings gives reason to investigate how sedation procedures can be optimized during ERCP. The abstract can be found at (abstract).


Patient-reported outcome measures after endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography: a prospective, multicentre study.Glomsaker TB, Hoff G, Kvaløy JT, Søreide K, Aabakken L, Søreide JA; On behalf of the Norwegian Gastronet ERCP group.
Scand J Gastroenterol. 2013 May 31. [Epub ahead of print]

Trauma epidemiology in Norway

Another PhD is done and dusted... 
It was a pleasure to attend this week's dissertation in Oslo when Thomas Kristiansen defended his thesis "Epidemiology and management of traumatic injuries: a population-based study of fatal trauma and assessment of geographical challenges in the organisation of trauma care " at the Diaconess Hospital. Great job and work well done! I've had the pleasure of being co-supervisor and co-author on several of his works. The first paper we co-wrote was on trauma systems in the Nordic countries (Trauma systems and early management of severe injuries in Scandinavia: review of the current state.) 

From T Kristiansen et al Injury. 2010 May;41(5):444-52. doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2009.05.027. Epub 2009 Jun 21.

Thomas has later published a series of paper (one yet to be published, but is now in final revisions) that constitutes the material for his thesis and PhD:


1: Kristiansen T, Rehn M, Gravseth HM, Lossius HM, Kristensen P. Paediatric trauma mortality in Norway: a population-based study of injury characteristics and urban-rural differences
trauma mortality in Norway: a population-based study of injury characteristicsand urban-rural differences. Injury. 2012 Nov;43(11):1865-72. doi:
10.1016/j.injury.2011.08.011. Epub 2011 Sep 21. PubMed PMID: 21939971.
2: Kristiansen T, Ringdal KG, Skotheimsvik T, Salthammer HK, Gaarder C, Naess PA,
Lossius HM. Implementation of recommended trauma system criteria in south-eastern Norway: a cross-sectional hospital surveyNorway: a cross-sectional hospital survey. Scand J Trauma Resusc Emerg Med. 2012
Jan 26;20:5. doi: 10.1186/1757-7241-20-5. PubMed PMID: 22281020; PubMed Central
PMCID: PMC3285082.
3: Kristiansen T, Lossius HM, Søreide K, Steen PA, Gaarder C, Næss PA. Patients Referred to a Norwegian Trauma Centre: effect of transfer distance on injury patterns, use of resources and outcomesReferred to a Norwegian Trauma Centre: effect of transfer distance on injurypatterns, use of resources and outcomes. J Trauma Manag Outcomes. 2011 Jun
16;5(1):9. doi: 10.1186/1752-2897-5-9. PubMed PMID: 21679393; PubMed Central
PMCID: PMC3135518.
4: Thomas Kristiansen, Hans M Lossius, Marius Rehn, Petter
Kristensen, Hans M Gravseth, Jo Røislien and Kjetil Søreide. Epidemiology of Trauma: a population-based study of geographical risk factors for injury deaths in the working-age population of Norway. (in press soon)

Thomas K. (far left) together with the members of the evaluation committee - and after having received the final verdict! Sigh of relief!

In addition to the work above I have previously investigated aspects of trauma epidemiology from other perspectives. One of the earliest experiences was to investigate the epidemiology of trauma deaths in our region (Stavanger area) which was published in World J Surg, 2007. In this paper, and in subsequent correspondence (Injury 2008; World J Surg 2010) and editorial work (BJS 2009), we discussed the principle of the "trimodal temporal death distribution", which I believe is a great educational model for explaining the temporal differences in relation to death causes (i.e immediate death usually occurs from non-salvagable bleeding or brain damage, most frequently outside hospital and following the accident/incident; early deaths occur from rapid bleeding that is not stopped or brain injuries not intervened on; later deaths may occur from insults to the brain, and the final mode of death is from the organ failures that follows the initial injuries). While serving a purpose as educational tool, it is simplified and obviously there is great overlap in modes and time-phrames that the researcher needs to see in relation. Also, the distribution will change somewhat from region to region, depending on the dominating mechanisms of trauma etc. If you'd like to know more details oabout this, please seek up any of the refs below or fell free to send me an email for a reprint (ksoreide@mac.com):

1: Søreide K. Temporal patterns of death after trauma: evaluation of circadian,
diurnal, periodical and seasonal trends in 260 fatal injuries. Scand J Surg.
2010;99(4):235-9. PubMed PMID: 21159595.

2: Søreide K. Epidemiology of trauma deaths: location, location, location! World 
J Surg. 2010 Jul;34(7):1720-1; author reply 1722-3. doi:
10.1007/s00268-010-0434-3. PubMed PMID: 20112018.

3: Meling T, Harboe K, Søreide K. Incidence of traumatic long-bone fractures
requiring in-hospital management: a prospective age- and gender-specific analysis
of 4890 fractures. Injury. 2009 Nov;40(11):1212-9. doi:
10.1016/j.injury.2009.06.003. Epub 2009 Jul 5. PubMed PMID: 19580968.

4: Søreide K. Epidemiology of major trauma. Br J Surg. 2009 Jul;96(7):697-8. doi:
10.1002/bjs.6643. PubMed PMID: 19526611.

5: Søreide K, Krüger AJ, Ellingsen CL, Tjosevik KE. Pediatric trauma deaths are
predominated by severe head injuries during spring and summer. Scand J Trauma
Resusc Emerg Med. 2009 Jan 22;17:3. doi: 10.1186/1757-7241-17-3. PubMed PMID:
19161621; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2637226.

6: Krüger AJ, Søreide K. Trimodal temporal distribution of fatal trauma--fact or 
fiction? Injury. 2008 Aug;39(8):960-1; author reply 961-2. doi:
10.1016/j.injury.2008.01.007. Epub 2008 Jun 30. PubMed PMID: 18586249.

7: Søreide K, Krüger AJ, Vårdal AL, Ellingsen CL, Søreide E, Lossius HM.
Epidemiology and contemporary patterns of trauma deaths: changing place, similar 
pace, older face. World J Surg. 2007 Nov;31(11):2092-103. PubMed PMID: 17899256.