With the launch of JBC 34-1, the first issue of 2008, we now have fourteen online JBC issues available. These online issues when combined with the prior printed volumes represent a significant educational achievement, and without question have added to our professional body of knowledge.

The JBC Representatives from each of our five member Associations, as well as the Association Editors, have worked extremely hard to provide yet another informative issue. Please take a moment to email one of the JBC Board Members or Editors and let them know what you think about our latest JBC offering.

Our Journal's 34-1 Gallery features the award-wining print media, website design, and video programs from HeSCA’s most recent Media Festival, which was held in Toronto, Canada, at HeSCA’s 2007 annual meeting. Be sure to check out these creative and educational print pieces, web, and motion media entries. Of course, one aspect featured in our Journal’s Gallery is the opportunity to see these motion media winners in video trailer form. As JBC Management Board Chair, I personally want to thank those many HeSCA producers and directors, as well as Michael Getz and Karen Henriquez, who kindly assisted with the re-creation of this Media Festival.

Included in JBC 34-1 is "A Biologically Inspired Mechano-optical Imaging System Based in Insect Vision," written by Susanne K. Williams, David Reser, and Adrian G. Dyer. This article recognizes that nature has devised a number of biological imaging systems that allow animals to view their surroundings. This study investigates the principle of making photographs with a mechano-optical device, which freely transmits all wavelengths of radiation, and accurately simulates the frontal foveal region of a bee's vision.

We also include a wonderful article celebrating the remarkable life, legacy, and teaching of medical illustrator Robert Wabnitz, who passed away in 2007 at the age of 82. Mr. Wabnitz had studied medical illustration under Max Brödel at Johns Hopkins University, and for many years had directed the Medical Illustration Unit at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY. Mr. Wabnitz is fondly remembered by colleagues and former students alike as a kind, gentle man with a passion for teaching and an infectious sense of humor. The article is simply entitled, "Remembering Bob Wabnitz," and was written by Jim Perkins.

Our 34-1 JBC Showcase supplements Jim’s tribute and highlights an excellent selection of some of Bob Wabnitz's many surgical illustrations.

We also offer the article, “Designing a Web-based Clinical Counseling Tool About Disorders of Sex Development,” written by Shelley L. Wall, Michael J. Wiley, Barbara J. Neilson, Jodie Jenkinson, Gordon Tait, and Darius J. Bägli, M.D. This article discusses the development and use of an online clinical counseling website to address the need for sensitive, highly visual, and easily understood instructional material to teach parents about disorders of sex development (DSD). During the design process, focus groups were conducted with parents at the DSD clinic of a large pediatric teaching hospital to assess the usability, optimum levels of visual complexity, and educational value of the website.

We also feature a Book Review of Photoshop CS3 for Forensic Professionals: A Complete Digital Imaging Course for Investigators written by George Reis. Mr. Reis is author of "Forensic Imaging - An Overview," which appeared in an earlier issue of the JBC (JBC 31:2).

The JBC Viewpoint offers some personal insight about survival strategies for institutional-based biomedical communication departments. 

We continue to ask for your support of the JBC. You can assist us in this effort by submitting an article or a JBC Book Review for publication. In addition, we invite you to write a JBC Viewpoint about some aspect of your work, a personal philosophy, or something that you feel is of importance to the biomedical communication community. These Viewpoints are not intended to be fully illustrated or multi-referenced articles, but are designed to be thoughtful essays about subjects appropriate to all of us. 

Finally, with this issue we warmly welcome Carol Gray as our new JBC Business Manager. You might remember that Carol was a JBC Board member some years ago, and she has now rejoined our team. Please welcome Carol back into the JBC family.

Sadly, we say a fond good-bye to our previous Business Manager, Nancy Hurtgen. Nancy was an important and strategic part of our management team, and she will be greatly missed. I’d like to personally thank Nancy for her exemplary service to the JBC, and wish her good luck.

Welcome to 34-1.


Gary Schnitz, FAMI       
Chair, JBC Management Board
gschnitz@indianahandcenter.com

Produced in the U.S.A. and © 2003-2008 by The Journal of Biocommunication, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is supported by members' and public subscriptions and is published online three times each year.

THE JOURNAL OF BIOCOMMUNICATION is available to all paid members of the ABCD, AIMBI, AMI, BCA, and HeSCA. Other individuals and institutions are invited to subscribe: individuals at $60, libraries or institutions at $95, students at $50 per year.

Address subscription correspondence to:
Subscriptions: Carol Gray (Business Manager)
2772 Woodwardia Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90077
Phone: 310-475-4708
carolgray@gmail.com
http://www.jbiocommunications.org

Direct editorial communications to respective association editors.
Managing Editor: Joe Ogrodnick
Entomology, NYS Ag. Experiment Station
Communications Services, NYSAES
632 W. North Street
Geneva, NY 14456
(315) 787-2324, fax (315) 787-2387

Association of Biomedical Communications Directors (ABCD) Editor: Manny Bekier
Biomedical Communications
SUNY Downstate Medical Center
450 Clarkson Avenue
Box 18
Brooklyn, NY 11203
(718) 270-7551, fax (718) 270-7549

Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) Co-Editor: Gary Lees
The Johns Hopkins University, Art as Applied to Medicine
The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
1830 E. Monument, St. Suite 7000
Baltimore, MD 21093
(410) 955-3213

Australian Institute of Medical and Biological Illustration (AIMBI) Editor: Julie Murray
Medici Graphics
St. Vincent's Hospital
Victoria St. Darlinghurst NSW 2010
Phone (02) 8382 2168
Fax (02) 8382 2560

Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) Co-Editor: Mark Lefkowitz
Biomedical Visuals
132 Oak Hill Dr.
Sharon, MA, 02067
(781) 784-5293

BioCommunications Association (BCA) Editor:
Mark Marzolf
Media Services
Shriners Hospitals for Children
Fairfax Road at Virginia Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84103
(801) 536-3750

The Health and Sciences Communications Association (HeSCA) Editor:
Lori Klein (HeSCA Editor)
Reference Department
National Library of Medicine
8600 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20894
Phone 301-435-4891
Fax 301-402-1384

Calendar and Association News Editor: Gary Schnitz
The Indiana Hand Center
P.O. Box 80434
8501 Harcourt Road
Indianapolis, IN 46280-0434
(317) 471-4446, fax (317) 471-4404

Management Board: Gary Schnitz, Chairman (The Indiana Hand Center) • Bob Turner (The Scripps Research Institute) • Connie Johansen (National Geospatial Intelligence Agency) • Gary Lees (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine) • Lee Potts (Merck Research Laboratories) • Manny Bekier (SUNY Downstate Medical Center) • Gillian Duncan (Graphica Medica) • Julie Murray (Medici Graphics, NSW Australia

Webmaster: Michael Getz (Illumina Interactive, Boston, MA)

Editors: Each member association of The Journal of Biocommunication may select one Editor, whose responsibility it is to secure manuscript material and assure technical accuracy, validity, and usefulness of the Journal's content. Each Editor works with an Editorial Review Board selected by the sponsor association. Members of the Editorial Review Board critique and edit articles, and provide other editorial assistance, at the request of the Editor. The JBC accepts unsolicited materials for consideration. Unsolicited materials may be submitted to the Managing Editor or to any of the Association Editors for consideration. For more information, please see Contributors.

Editorial Review Board: Scott Barrows (Medical Art Associates) • Janis Brown (University of Southern California) • Susan G. Deihl (Virginia Commonwealth University) • Zina Deretsky (National Science Foundation) • Marc Dryer (University of Toronto) • Gillian Duncan (Graphica Medica) • Brian Dunham, MD (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) • Craig Gosling (Indiana University) • Christine Gralapp (Fairfax, Calif.) • Jamie Guth (World Health Organization) • Kenneth Heyman (Immersion Medical) • Tom Hurtgen (Duke Clinical Research Institute) • Dale Kennedy (VA Medical Center - Albuquerque, New Mexico) • Lori J. Klein (National Library of Medicine) • Dale Knorr (Naval Medical Center, San Diego, Calif.) • Gregory Lucier (University of Calgary) • Patrick Lynch (Yale University) • Ken Michaels (National Cancer Institute) • Steven Moon (Ohio State University) • Darisse Paquette (Tufts-New England Medical Center) • Stephen Pendry (Mary Greeley Medical Center) • Michael Peres (Rochester Institute of Technology) • James Perkins (Rochester Institute of Technology) • David Rini (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine) • Sue Seif (Seif & Associates.) • Bobb Sleezer (Christiana Care Health Services) • Keith Stenehjem (Mayville State University) • Bob Turner (The Scripps Research Institute) • Judy Tyler (National Student Nurses Association) • Linda Warren (Austin, Texas) • Linda Wilson-Pauwels (University of Toronto)

Business Manager: Carol Gray

Production Group: Michael Getz (Illumina Interactive)