‘New knowledge coming from research needs to be spread’ – Phoebus Madianos explains role of JCP Digest

JCPDigest was the subject of a lively EFP Perio Talks conversation in which editor Phoebus Madianos explained the publication’s aims and achievements.

Launched in 2014 and published 12 times a year, JCP Digestoffers a concise account of research published in the EFP’s official scientific journal the Journal of Clinical Periodontology (JCP).

Prof Madianos, chair of the EFP scientific affairs committee, explained that the Digest’s role was to summarise an article from each monthly issue of the JCP “in a language that is more easily understood and to make it more readable for the wider periodontal and dental community.”

Discussing JCP Digest with Susana Noronha, president of the Portuguese Society of Periodontology who also translates the publication into Portuguese, in the February 4 Perio Talks session on the EFP’s Instagram page (@perioeurope), he said: “The JCP is the leading journal in periodontology – it’s a remarkable achievement of the present editor [Maurizio Tonetti], the associate editors, and everyone who contributes to it.

“This journal publishes some of the most important articles in our field, so we thought that it would be a great idea to make this more easily accessible to everyone – not just academics but also relevant to the average periodontist, clinician, or the ordinary dentist who may have an interest in periodontology and implant dentistry.”

Asked about the criteria for selecting articles from the JCP, Prof Madianos said that he and co-editor Andreas Stavropoulos looked for articles on different areas of periodontics and implant dentistry that would be of interest to clinicians, covering topics such as implant dentistry, classic periodontics, aesthetics, root-surface coverage, regeneration, and periodontal medicine.”

‘Educational process’

JCP Digest is available in eight languages (English, Croatian, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish). The summaries are prepared by postgraduate students at universities that teach the EFP-accredited master’s degree programme in periodontology.

Asked by Dr Noronha about the role of the students, Prof Madianos replied: “It’s important. First, they have to read the article in depth. But not only do they need to digest it and present it in an easier way for someone to understand, but they also have to dig into the article and find both the strengths and the limitations. It’s an in-depth critical look at the article, and the process of producing the digest is very educational for those students.”

Susana Noronha noted that JCP Digest is the only EFP publication that is translated from English and asked, “Why is it unique?”

Phoebus Madianos, who was EFP president in 2014-15 and is chair of the organising committee for next year’s EuroPerio10 in Copenhagen, replied that the main goal of the publication is to make the research more widely available and many clinicians may not be fluent in English. “New knowledge coming from research needs to be spread and it’s important to be able to spread the readability of this publication,” he said.

Widening their conversation beyond the publication, Madianos and Noronha also discussed the new classification of periodontal and peri-implant diseases, EFP workshops on perio and systemic health and the campaigns the federation has launched with other professional bodies (the Perio & Diabetes and Perio & Cardio campaigns), and the recent research showing associations between periodontitis and Covid-19 complications.

Looking to future research that may find its way onto the pages of JCP Digest, Phoebus Madianos said that there was still “a lot to learn” about periodontitis: “Who gets it? Why? When? We have to go deeper than we have gone so far. We have so much to learn about the disease, the best way to treat it, and how we can customise it according to the different characteristics of our patients.”

The next EFP Perio Talks, on Tuesday 23 February at 15.00 (CET), will feature a conversation between two of the authors of the research published earlier this month in the JCP showing associations between periodontal disease and Covid-19 complications.

VIEW EFP PERIO TALKS ON JCP DIGEST