Dear HKSCCM Members,

To update you our progress, the Critical Care Respiratory Medicine Handbook Editorial Board has been formed.

Please contact Dr Arthur CW Lau, Chief Editor, at laucw3@ha.org.hk if you are interested in being one of the contributors!

Aim of the CCRM Handbook

To promote CCM/ICM and respiratory medicine knowledge

Editorial Board

Jan 2015: Endorsement by the HKSCCM Council

Feb 2015: Invitation to authors/editors to participate

March 2015: Brainstorming of ideas and outline planning; setting up an online platform Google docs for collaborative writing

15th April 2015: First Editorial Board Meeting in PYNEH, editors of each chapter and sections assigned, initial writing started afterwards, further authors invited if needed

Before 15th May 2015: Decision of all major headings/topics have to be confirmed

June to December 2015: intense writing period

September 2015: Interim review of obstacles and adjustment of directions, if necessary

Before 31st December 2015: First draft done, missing parts reviewed and more authors invited if needed

Before March 2016: Second draft done, publisher contacted

 Important notes to contributors

1. Put your name under Editor or Author or both in chapters/sections you would like to be the Responsible Editor or Author for our coordination of effort. Whether the editor/author names will appear in the final version of the book under each chapter or in a list will be decided later.

2. Please note that materials may be subjected to extensive editing by each of us, by the chief editors, and eventually also by the book publisher, and so they may not necessarily appear in the final version of the book.

3. Share out useful clinical photos and materials by direct copy and paste into the chapter for consideration of the Responsible Editors/Authors. Include captions and explanations if necessary. Please retain the original high resolution photo files which will requested by the printer for the final printing of the book.

4. Observe the Privacy Ordinance: cover eyes and unique patient identifiers

5. Observe the Copyright Ordinance: directly copy and paste materials for the purpose of writing and reference only, for final publication, please re-draw diagrams, and quote source of tables. Let the chief editors know if you need help (see if we need to hire an illustrator later)

Principles in writing the chapters

Whenever there is doubt as to how to edit/write, follow these principles:

1. Practical for daily clinical practice for both doctors and nurses

   1. Useful as an reference to look up and translate into clinical practice

   2. When research results are quoted, translate them into a practical format for daily practice, and not just academic discussion

   3. Include case-based examples and quizzes, present in the order of approaching a real case, in a holistic approach, include your precious experiences and common pitfalls

   4. Omit things that are widely known, include difficult concepts but translant them into practical and easy-to-understand, easy-to-memorize ways, include experience on how you learn them, e.g. mnemonics, stories, etc

2. Useful for specialist examination preparation

   1. Comprehensive yet concise

   2. Level from post-graduate to specialist level, not medical student level, highlight important pitfalls

   3. Updated, each major sub-topic to be followed by a list of landmark references of maximum five original articles or reviews.

   4. Clarify widely misunderstood concepts

   5. Explain rationale behind practice, and not just flowcharts for readers to memorize

   6. Use more comparison tables and figures to illustrate difficult-to-grasp concepts

3. Hong Kong and Chinese-oriented

   1. Mention more HK-specific scenarios in terms of geography, or diseases in Chinese people in terms of ethnicity

   2. Include but simplify discussion on disease conditions that mostly only exist in westerners or non-Chinese ethnicity, unless they are also highly relevant to su

   3. Include previous critical care respiratory related incidents for discussion and suggest methods to prevent

   4. Include CHINESE translation of keywords