Health Care Ethics USA
2006 - Vol. 14 No.1

Announcement from the Director
of the Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University

Health Care Ethics USA has traditionally been edited by the Director of the Center for Health Care Ethics, first Fr. Kevin O'Rourke, OP (1993-1998), then Dr. Gerard Magill (1999-2005). When I assumed the position of Director in January 2006, I requested that Gerry Magill continue as editor of HCEUSA while I pursued an exciting publication arrangement for HCEUSA. Gerry kindly agreed and will continue as editor for volume 14 (2006).

I am very pleased to announce that beginning in January 2007, HCEUSA will be jointly published by the Catholic Health Association (CHA) and the Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. Dr. Ronald Hamel, Senior Director of Ethics at CHA, will assume the role of editor. Scott McConnaha at CHA will serve as the managing editor, while Sr. Pat Talone, VP of Mission at CHA, and I will serve as Associate Editors. Beginning in January 2007, HCEUSA will become a free benefit to members of CHA. Non-members of CHA will still be able to subscribe to HCEUSA at the same low rates by contacting the managing editor by email at smcconnaha@chausa.org.

Volume 14 (2006) will continue in its current format. However, beginning with volume 15 (2007), HCEUSA will include a number of new features:

• Feature articles: 1 or 2 in each issue, 1,500-2,000 words per article
• In the News: short blurbs about relevant ethics topics that have been covered in the media
• Ethical Currents: short write-ups about ethical issues that are especially relevant to Catholic health care
• From the Field: resources for ethics committees such as case studies with discussion questions and possibly with commentary, suggested readings related to the case, sample policies, successful educational units/programs, various tools, etc.
• Readers' Forum: a place to comment on previous issues of the newsletter
• Resources: such as bibliographies on a particular topic, book notes [250-500 words], book reviews [500-750 words], helpful ethics-related websites, etc.

HCEUSA will be published electronically in pdf (Adobe) format with supporting materials online. The pdf format is meant to offer the same convenience and cost-savings of other electronic formats while allowing readers to print high-resolution, journal-quality copies of HCEUSA. I hope that these new arrangements will enable HCEUSA to serve our faithful readers as well as a large audience of new readers for many years to come and in creative new ways.

James M. DuBois, PhD, DSc
Mäder Professor of Health Care Ethics
Center Director and Department Chair

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