Dear Hernia reader,

An important aspect of research in medicine is local, national and international collaboration. Through pooling of resources, time, logistics and finances can be maximized efficiently and work distributed more evenly between the parties involved. Although the type and outcome of (hernia) surgery can be influenced to some extent by local cultural, educational and socioeconomic factors, these should not prevent us from thinking and acting globally. For these reasons, we are proud to announce that Hernia is now the official organ, not only of the European Hernia Society (EHS) and the Americas Hernia Society (AHS), but also of the Asia Pacific Hernia Society (APHS). Realizing that more than half of the global population lives in the Asia-Pacific region, with China and India alone encompassing more than 2.5 billion people, the perspectives for our journal in terms of readership and additional research output are overwhelming. To further improve this process, we will support all initiatives which contribute to this goal.

We welcome the APHS, its members and in particular Davide Lomanto from Singapore and Anil Sharma from New Delhi who have been nominated by the APHS Executive Committee to become part of the Editorial Board of Hernia. This represents an important step forward to make Hernia truly the “World” Journal of Hernia and Abdominal Wall Surgery.

R.J. Fitzgibbons, M. Miserez and V. Schumpelick, Editors-in-Chief.

R. Bendavid and A. Montgomery, Associate Editors.

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Announcement of Hernia becoming the official organ of the APHS at the 1st World Conference on Abdominal Wall Hernia Surgery, Milan, Italy (April 25–29, 2015) with, from left to right M. Miserez, V. Schumpelick, R.J. Fitzgibbons (Editors-in-Chief) and S. Tumtavitikul (President of APHS, second from right)