Editor's notes.

In our last issue, volume 4 issue 5 in November, we had announced that by the January 2015 volume 5 issue 1, our journal would appear much different with many new user-friendly features and an exciting new look. We are reaching that goal. In our March 2015 issue, we will hear from co-action in more detail on these improvements.

We must be doing something right. Almost 2,000 new, unique individuals accessed the journal in December. This is the most ever in new reads in a single month. In this issue, we are publishing 15 manuscripts from Reading (PA), Easton (PA), Medstar Good Samaritan (MD), Medstar Union Memorial (MD), Pinnacle Health (PA), Sinai (MD), Broward (FL), Woodhull (NY), New Rochelle (NY), and Florence (Italy). There are three research papers. One is a survey regarding a new computer-based decision support system that has the potential to improve quality of care (1). Two are retrospective chart reviews – one, a study demonstrating a superior approach to predicting recurrent C. diff infection (2) and, the other, looking at risk factors for vitamin D deficiency, including obesity (3).

Case reports include unexpected invasive pulmonary aspergillosis in an asthmatic patient treated with short-term steroids (4), bacterial peritonitis caused by Listeria (5), rare and potentially fatal heart disease related to myotonic dystrophy (6), the importance of correct spinal images in back pain caused by a distant thoracic Schwannoma (7), a thoracic mass caused by an ossifying lipoma (8), and myomata degeneration presenting as fever and abdominal pain (9). Additionally reported are a catastrophic cryptococcus CNS infection (10) and two interesting thyroid carcinoma cases: thyroid follicular carcinoma presenting as metastatic skin lesions (11) and sarcoidosis which was initially mistaken for pre-existing papillary thyroid cancer (12). There is also a tongue image indicating amyloidosis (13). Our radiology series reports a unique seizure presentation caused by a colloid cyst at the Foramen of Monroe (14).

And, finally, in our history of medicine series, there is a review of the accomplishments of three medical giants – Simmelweis, Nightingale, and Codman (15).