J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2003;126:322
© 2003 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery
Priority issue: who is on first base? Reply
Andrew Wechsler, MD
The editor responds
How could any editor not acknowledge the durable wisdom of Francis Robicsek, a genius surgeon whose intellectual breadth most of us can only contemplate in awe? But, is it really important who or what was "first" or is it more important who "scores?" The latter is something of which we can keep track. The great surgeon Henry Souttar was probably the first to do a successful mitral valvotomy. But, did his operation benefit patients during the 20 years that it took before Charles Bailey and Dwight Harken popularized the operations? The Editors of the Journal are interested in "who is on first," but mainly in retrospect, when contemporary events are examined through the eyes of the historian trying to create an impetus to thought or progress. Those firsts have earned their place in history. The "first" of today may, in fact, be at the leading edge of infamy absent the wisdom of history, that most perfect of judges. So, we are happy to publish great ideas and operations for which there is no apparent prior report (that, of course, would represent "duplicate publication"). We simply prefer not to allow authors to claim primacy. For the best of ideas and procedures, we will allow history to be the judge of who was "first" and who "scored."
