A note from the publisher.(Editorial)

Welcome to the Jan/Feb, issue of FOCUS, our first issue of 2009 and the first of our 18th year of national publication. I'm happy to report that just about all of our writers have signed on with us for another year and we are honored to have joining us, Dr. William Dement, the "father" of sleep medicine, who has accepted our invitation to become a regularly featured sleep medicine columnist. Dr. Dement, discoverer of REM sleep and a pioneer in the field of sleep medicine is a major addition to our complement of outstanding writers. Welcome, Dr. Dement.

While I'm at it, let me also welcome to FOCUS Journal another great acquisition to our complement of writers - veteran therapist, educator, author/lecturer, Dr. Douglas Masini RRT-NPS FAARC, who is taking over our Neonatal/Pediatric Respiratory Care column from John Salyer RRT. Unfortunately, John had to relinquish the column because of increasing responsibilities at work. Dr. Masini is another outstanding addition to FOCUS.

As exciting, is the fact that we're working day and night putting the finishing touches on the 9th annual FOCUS conference coming up May 14-16 at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando. I've never been more excited about the program we have on tap and the magical location at which it will all happen. Without a doubt, it's going to be our best conference yet. We've expanded the program to include ten tracks of lectures (80 talks; each repeated, so no one has to miss anything) plus, we'll be featuring five, in-depth, early-bird breakfast workshops which are always a hit with our attendees. We're also repeating the 6-hour Asthma Educator Course that was so well-received last year and we were fortunate once again to arrange for the course to be given by Drs. Timothy Opt'Holt RRT AE-C & Ben Francisco PNP, AE-C, in my opinion, the finest speakers in the nation on this topic. Our keynote speech will also be very interesting. We were able to arrange for the world-famous, Disney Institute to present a talk on the subject of applying Walt Disney's principles and philosophies of operation to healthcare settings - a fascinating, eye-opening concept.

We'll have all of our usual fun and frolic at the conference as well - except this year we've added even more, including a fantastic Beatles dance/concert that will take place the evening of Wednesday, May 13th, at the Coronado Springs Resort. This is open to all attendees and all of their families, totally free of charge and I guarantee it's going to be a blast. Our "Beatles" are The Backbeats, one of the nation's finest tribute bands who put on an incredible show. We're also holding for the first time, a 5K run/walk for adults and a 1K race for children ages 8-12. These will take place right outside the ...