Dr. Vijairam Selvaraj, a hospitalist at The Miriam Hospital, is senior editor of the Brown Journal of Hospital Medicine, an online publication launched in April. The journal is one of very few publications aimed specifically at hospitalists.
Selvaraj, an assistant professor of medicine and clinician educator at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University and an adjunct clinical assistant professor at Johnson & Wales University, says the journal serves to disseminate new research and promote scholarly activity among hospitalists and young doctors.
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PBN: Tell us a little about why the journal was created and who created it.
SELVARAJ: There are approximately 44,000 hospitalists in the U.S., and over 75% of the hospitals in the U.S. employ hospitalists – physicians whose primary professional focus is the general medical care of hospitalized patients. Yet there exist only two journals in the United States for hospitalists, compared with the many journals that exist for other specialties.
The journal was founded by Dr. Kwame Dapaah-Afriyie, Dr. Arkadiy Finn and Dr. Vijairam Selvaraj of the Division of Hospital Medicine at The Miriam Hospital. It was created to help disseminate research and promote more scholarly activity among hospitalists and upcoming physicians.
PBN: Who receives the journal now, and what are your ideal plans for readership?
SELVARAJ: The journal is an online-only, quarterly published journal published by and for clinicians. It is also received by medical students, midlevel providers, residents and physicians in various specialties interested in inpatient/hospital medicine topics.
Our ideal plans are to promote the journal among a broad national and international audience and eventually get indexed in the National Institutes of Health (PubMed) database, which will subsequently substantially increase submissions, readership and scholarly activity.
PBN: Who are the contributing writers and what are some of the topics that have been published in the journal so far?
SELVARAJ: The contributing writers are a mix of medical students, residents, hospitalists and physicians from other specialties, including critical care and emergency medicine. Some topics published so far include case reports and images of patients with various illnesses such as monkeypox, quality improvement projects on barriers to discharge from the hospital, the Warren Alpert Medical School’s clinicopathologic conference, and updates in hospital medicine.
PBN: Have you gotten any feedback from hospitalists either locally or across the country?
SELVARAJ: Yes, we have! We have gotten incredible feedback from hospitalists, both locally and across the country. We have also gotten submissions from physicians in New Jersey, Iowa, Indiana and Texas, and international submissions from India and Indonesia.
PBN: How long have you been a hospitalist, and what drew you to the specialty?
SELVARAJ: I have been a hospitalist for over six years now. What drew me to being a hospitalist was the complex nature of patients’ problems, the need to problem-solve and the different perspectives you can obtain from various members of the care team that add to the patients’ care.
I also enjoy working with medical students, residents, nurses, social workers, pharmacists and case managers. Every week has a different schedule and a different rhythm. Being a hospitalist provides me with the perfect work-life balance and helps me carve out time to do research, work on the journal and do a variety of nonclinical things. Ultimately, the ability to pursue both clinical medicine and nonclinical interests creates the opportunity for a dynamic career.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN contributing writer.
