Novel concepts in medicine are typically derived from a small number of experiments or small patient populations. Validation requires peer-review, scientific discussion, and reproduction in larger populations and eventually in randomized, blinded trials.
However, communication of the initial results may face obstacles, as the preliminary results are often limited by small, non-representative patient population, lack of statistical power, and other methodological limitations.
The feature Rapid Communication of Novel Concepts in the journal Cardiovascular Diagnosis and Therapy is designed to provide a platform for the communication of such novel ideas. After a rapid review process, the editorial team will attempt to accompany the article by an authorative editorial, in order to outline the strengths and limitations of the concept. Fast on-line publication and distribution and feedback tools on the central web-site will allow initial communication and potential cooperation between investigators.