When thinking back on my high school days, now 30 years since graduation, I have mostly fond memories. The teachers were stimulating, the courses challenging, and my classmates a strange, but interestingly wild assortment one would expect of the late 60s and early 70s. Walter, who looked like a small version of Beethoven, and I edited the school newspaper, the Pikesville Panther. It was great. We had an opportunity to express ourselves to a large audience, to discuss in a fairly open forum the great "issues" of the day, from school issues to the international scene, to experiment with style and design, and to provoke (intentionally) our readers' thoughts and emotions. As suited the free spirit of the day, our teacher supervisor allowed a lot of latitude and stood by us in the inevitable arguments with the administration over both news content and opinion. Meeting deadlines was our major fear and challenge.

When Dr. Keats approached me about becoming the new Editor-in-Chief for Applied Radiology, my thoughts were a bit mixed. Taking on more responsibility seemed contradictory to the course I was hoping my life and career would be taking. I always enjoyed AR, because it is a fast read with practical content and is easily portable. I thought it had a great role to play in refreshing and updating radiology education. Ultimately, I reflected on my high school newspaper editing days and the joy of creating such a product and optimizing that product to meet the evolving needs of the readers. Never being short on an opinion, I also decided that the editorial opportunities would be too good to pass up.

Perhaps the most humbling part of this decision process had been the idea of trying to step in after Dr. Theodore Keats, a man whom I have viewed with awe and have held in high esteem in my progress from residency to the present. His texts are an essential source in any Radiology Department, especially the Emergency Department, and are used routinely for the practical information they provide to solve real-life, everyday problems. Dr. Keats is a man deserving of his high stature in our profession, as evidenced by his innumerable accomplishments. He is also a kind, feeling man, deeply thoughtful, sincere, and knowledgeable about the world well beyond what his professional credentials attest to. Just to maintain the practical focus and quality of AR as under his direction would be a goal worth achieving. I hope, based on this foundation, a few new approaches can also be explored to enhance the value of AR to its readers. The suggestion box is always open.

The times, they are a changin'...so what else is new? The pace and volume of medical information exchange is staggering. Just remembering what we think we already know is tough enough, much less staying up with all that is new. It is a very large and perhaps bitter pill to swallow. With the guidance of the Editorial Board and staff of AR, and the support of the radiology community at large, I hope Applied Radiology can make some of that information more palatable and easier to digest.