Sometimes I feel like I am writing in invisible ink. I write these editorials but I have a feeling no one is actually reading them. It’s a little bit like the old adage that if a tree falls in the forest and no one sees or hears it fall, did it really fall?
Even though most newspapers are moving to tablet and smartphone apps, and Gen X doesn’t know what a typewriter is, it is apparent that many vascular surgeons are not reading the electronic version of Vascular Specialist. Despite the move to electronic media most of us like to have paper delivered to our desk. I believe that is because we are constantly inundated with emails, texts and tweets. Every day I seem to have a new friend on Facebook or a new acquaintance on LinkedIn.
Dr. Samson
I have a Nigerian prince who wants to send me gold and a hitherto unknown cousin who lost her wallet while traveling abroad and now she needs me to send money immediately. There are constantly people that want to update my website and sales representatives that want me to read the latest and greatest data on their product.
Recruiters are “tempting” me with new job opportunities in Saudi Arabia and I am being implored to present a manuscript on anything I like at a meeting in a remote part of China. If I didn’t know better, I would think I was the most important person on this planet (actually I am, but that is not germane to this problem).
When an innocent email arrives notifying me that the latest edition of Vascular Specialist is online I, like many others, may disregard it in this morass of emails and automatically send the notification to my trash file without thinking – and I’m the editor!
Accordingly, this month my editorial asks you to answer a brief survey… so help me out here. Please take our simple poll below. Choose from one of the responses. It will not take long.
If you haven’t read this editorial, choose response D. Now I realize this may be an existential question since how can you choose a response that states that you didn’t read the editorial? Clearly you can’t! But then I have my own existential question which is “are you readers even out there?” Hello! Anybody there?
<a href=”http://polldaddy.com/poll/7654425/” external=”1″>Please answer the following poll to help us assess the Vascular Specialist online-only edition e-readership:</a>
Oh well, back to the forest.
Dr. Samson is a clinical professor of surgery (vascular), Florida State University Medical School, a member of Sarasota Vascular Specialists, Sarasota, Fla., and the medical editor of Vascular Specialist.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;http://polldaddy.com/poll/7654425/&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;a… answer the following poll to help us assess the Vascular Specialist online-only edition e-readership:&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
