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Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine
1083
DEPARTMENTS
Letters to the Editor Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine
The author responds 1
We were stunned to discover that an article in the March 2007 supplement includes a key reference identified as a publication by the Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine (CSCM) entitled Early Acute Management in Adults With Spinal Cord Injury: A Clinical Practice Guideline for Health-Care Providers published in 2007 by Paralyzed Veterans of America. Simply stated, this reference does not exist. A document by this title is presently in draft format only. This draft document is confidential and has not been through field review, legal review, or approved for publication by the CSCM’s Steering Committee. Any statements attributed to this unpublished document must be recognized as unsupported, and do not represent the opinion or position of the CSCM. The CSCM’s guideline development process occurs in deliberate stages of review ensuring scientific and legal integrity of the field, CSCM participants, the development panel, and Paralyzed Veterans. This same process has resulted in successful publication of 9 previous titles with 6 companion consumer guides. Any breach of this process subjects the entire process to suspicion and criticism, which would undermine the collaborative enterprise of this Consortium of 22-member organizations. Lawrence Vogel, MD CSCM Steering Committee Chair Peter Wing, MD Early Acute Topic Guideline Development Panel Chair
During the preparation of the Spinal Cord Injury Medicine section of the 2007 Study Guide (published as a supplement to the March issue of Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabiliation), I was participating on a panel for the Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine (CSCM) in the development of a document entitled Early Acute Management in Adults With Spinal Cord Injury: A Clinical Practice Guideline for Health-Care Providers. Anticipating publication of the CSCM guideline around the same time as the Study Guide, I included in the Study Guide (principally in the article on which I was the lead author1) references that anticipated the CSCM document. In error, I allowed my work on the Study Guide to proceed to publication without removing (or correcting) references to the incomplete and unpublished CSCM document. The culpability for this error rests solely with me, as neither the CSCM, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, nor the development panel was aware that the Study Guide included such a reference. Indeed, the editor of this edition of the Archives was also unaware that the CSCM document was not pending publication. I apologize for my error and failure to correct the Study Guide prior to publication and direct readers to the accompanying correction.
Thomas Stripling Paralyzed Veterans of America Washington, DC
Lisa-Ann Wuermser, MD Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN
Reference 1. Wuermser LA, Ho CH, Chiodo AE, Priebe MM, Kirshblum SC, Scelza WM. Spinal cord injury medicine. 2. Acute care management of traumatic and nontraumatic injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2007;88(3 Suppl 1):S55-61.
Reference 1. Wuermser LA, Ho CH, Chiodo AE, Priebe MM, Kirshblum SC, Scelza WM. Spinal cord injury medicine. 2. Acute care management of traumatic and nontraumatic injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2007;88(3 Suppl 1):S55-61.
doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2007.06.766
doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2007.06.767
Corrections The following corrections concern reference 2 in Wuermser LA, Ho CH, Chiodo AE, Priebe MM, Kirshblum SC, Scelza WM. Spinal cord injury medicine. 2. Acute care management of traumatic and nontraumatic injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2007;88(3 Suppl 1):S55-61. Reference 2 (Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine. Early acute management in adults with spinal cord injury: a clinical practice guideline for health-care providers. Washington (DC): Paralyzed Veterans of America; 2007) should be deleted (currently a draft document is in field review, with publication expected in late 2007), and all text referencing this document should be deleted or reference an existing publication. Listed below is each instance this unpublished document is referenced in the text, with a correction, an alternative reference, or both. In section 2.1, paragraph 1 (pS55), the sentence “Transfer to such a center is advocated as soon as the patient is stable, with the suggestion that emergency medical services in urban areas should consider bypassing the nearest hospital to take SCI patients to level 1 trauma centers directly2” should be deleted; the sentence cannot be supported by existing literature alone.
Arch Phys Med Rehabil Vol 88, August 2007
DEPARTMENTS
Letters to the Editor Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine
The author responds 1
We were stunned to discover that an article in the March 2007 supplement includes a key reference identified as a publication by the Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine (CSCM) entitled Early Acute Management in Adults With Spinal Cord Injury: A Clinical Practice Guideline for Health-Care Providers published in 2007 by Paralyzed Veterans of America. Simply stated, this reference does not exist. A document by this title is presently in draft format only. This draft document is confidential and has not been through field review, legal review, or approved for publication by the CSCM’s Steering Committee. Any statements attributed to this unpublished document must be recognized as unsupported, and do not represent the opinion or position of the CSCM. The CSCM’s guideline development process occurs in deliberate stages of review ensuring scientific and legal integrity of the field, CSCM participants, the development panel, and Paralyzed Veterans. This same process has resulted in successful publication of 9 previous titles with 6 companion consumer guides. Any breach of this process subjects the entire process to suspicion and criticism, which would undermine the collaborative enterprise of this Consortium of 22-member organizations. Lawrence Vogel, MD CSCM Steering Committee Chair Peter Wing, MD Early Acute Topic Guideline Development Panel Chair
During the preparation of the Spinal Cord Injury Medicine section of the 2007 Study Guide (published as a supplement to the March issue of Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabiliation), I was participating on a panel for the Paralyzed Veterans of America’s Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine (CSCM) in the development of a document entitled Early Acute Management in Adults With Spinal Cord Injury: A Clinical Practice Guideline for Health-Care Providers. Anticipating publication of the CSCM guideline around the same time as the Study Guide, I included in the Study Guide (principally in the article on which I was the lead author1) references that anticipated the CSCM document. In error, I allowed my work on the Study Guide to proceed to publication without removing (or correcting) references to the incomplete and unpublished CSCM document. The culpability for this error rests solely with me, as neither the CSCM, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, nor the development panel was aware that the Study Guide included such a reference. Indeed, the editor of this edition of the Archives was also unaware that the CSCM document was not pending publication. I apologize for my error and failure to correct the Study Guide prior to publication and direct readers to the accompanying correction.
Thomas Stripling Paralyzed Veterans of America Washington, DC
Lisa-Ann Wuermser, MD Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN
Reference 1. Wuermser LA, Ho CH, Chiodo AE, Priebe MM, Kirshblum SC, Scelza WM. Spinal cord injury medicine. 2. Acute care management of traumatic and nontraumatic injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2007;88(3 Suppl 1):S55-61.
Reference 1. Wuermser LA, Ho CH, Chiodo AE, Priebe MM, Kirshblum SC, Scelza WM. Spinal cord injury medicine. 2. Acute care management of traumatic and nontraumatic injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2007;88(3 Suppl 1):S55-61.
doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2007.06.766
doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2007.06.767
Corrections The following corrections concern reference 2 in Wuermser LA, Ho CH, Chiodo AE, Priebe MM, Kirshblum SC, Scelza WM. Spinal cord injury medicine. 2. Acute care management of traumatic and nontraumatic injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2007;88(3 Suppl 1):S55-61. Reference 2 (Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine. Early acute management in adults with spinal cord injury: a clinical practice guideline for health-care providers. Washington (DC): Paralyzed Veterans of America; 2007) should be deleted (currently a draft document is in field review, with publication expected in late 2007), and all text referencing this document should be deleted or reference an existing publication. Listed below is each instance this unpublished document is referenced in the text, with a correction, an alternative reference, or both. In section 2.1, paragraph 1 (pS55), the sentence “Transfer to such a center is advocated as soon as the patient is stable, with the suggestion that emergency medical services in urban areas should consider bypassing the nearest hospital to take SCI patients to level 1 trauma centers directly2” should be deleted; the sentence cannot be supported by existing literature alone.
Arch Phys Med Rehabil Vol 88, August 2007