By Martin Fortin
Good news! A new journal with a special focus on patients with multimorbidity and comorbidity has been created.
The Journal of Comorbidity (JOC), an international, open-access, peer-reviewed journal for the pathophysiology, diagnosis, prevention and management of comorbidity has been inaugurated and its first issue is already posted online.
Although the name of the journal might suggest that it is devoted exclusively to articles related to the well known definition of comorbidity provided by Feinstein “any distinct additional clinical entity that has existed or may occur during the clinical course of a patient who has the index disease under study”, the first issue of JOC makes it clear that this is not the case.
The inaugural editorial of the Editor-in-Chief clearly states that “the management of patients with comorbidity needs to consider the patient as a whole, extending beyond the primary medical speciality, and encompassing all of the coexisting complications, not just the principal disease or various conditions in isolation”.
In addition, an editorial authored by José M. Valderas, Stewart W. Mercer, and myself further explains that “the journal has opted to use comorbidity in its name, and a number of well founded reasons explain this choice: for reasons of simplicity; in order to acknowledge both the relevance of research on comorbidity for the treatment of specific conditions and the historical pre-eminence of the construct; and finally, for an awareness of evolving concepts”.
This journal that clearly invites authors to submit papers related to both comorbidity AND multimorbidity represents another opportunity to publish research of great value.