Editorial

This is the last issue of the Australian Military Medicine Association journal to be published in the current format and under the name Australian Military Medicine. Australian Military Medicine as an entity arose from the Association’s newsletter which has been published since 1991. It has grown and developed into a journal that publishes scientific and professional work in the areas of military medicine and health. It is also the
vehicle by which the Association keeps in contact with its members.

As a result of considerable work by a newly formed Editorial Board, the Association is now ready to launch a new journal that will take this subject area into a new dimension in a way that will promote military medicine and health and also the Association.

This initiative has come about through the close cooperation between the Association, the Defence Health Services and the Centre for Military and Veterans Health. At a meeting held some 18 months ago, the leaders of these groups met and agreed that there was a need to consolidate and strengthen the medium for the provision of the scientific and professional publication to advance the knowledge and understanding of military medicine and health issues in Australia.

It was agreed that the best means to do this was to focus this effort into one broadly published independent journal. The Association as representing this broad and independent base and with a Constitution that requires it to publish a journal was eager and willing to take the leading role in and ownership of such a publication.

Following from this meeting, the Association has taken the lead in establishing an Editorial Board with representatives from each of these groups and
representatives from some of the key institutions that are involved in military and veterans’ health research and support.

The Editorial Board is currently constituted of the  following members:
• Russ Schedlich – AMMA (Editor-in-Chief)
• Scott Kitchener – AMMA
• Peter Leggat – Defence Health Services
• Graeme Cannell – CMVH
• Keith Horsley – Department of Veterans’ Affairs
• Malcolm Sim – Monash University
• Bob Stacy – University of Ballarat

The Board has taken the view that the presentation of the new journal must be such as to give it the opportunity to achieve a leading status both regionally and internationally in the areas of military medicine and health. It believes that this can only be achieved by taking what might be regarded as a “cradle to grave” approach to the subject. In this context, it is now well recognised that there are major military health effects that last well past a service person’s discharge from active duty and that result from insults that occur during service.

As a first step, the Board recommended and the Association’s Council agreed that the title of the journal should be the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health.

The journal will aim to include content related to both contemporary military medicine and health issues as they impact on the serving member whilst also focusing on the longer term issues that affect both the older serving member and those who have retired or moved to other activities.

The journal will be published four times per year and will be supported by limited online publication through a new web site: www.JMVH.org

The first journal in the new form will be published in July 2007. I am sure that it will build on the work of Australian Military Medicine in promoting military medicine and health but at the same time will take it to a new dimension for the future.

Russ Schedlich