Ross Baker's LinkedIn profile is impressive but incomplete. He does not, for example, announce yet that he is editor-in-chief of the journal Healthcare Quarterly, a significant milestone for this upstart publishing venture. Ross was formerly associate editor of the journal in support of our founding editor, Peggy Leatt. This development should not come as a surprise to our readers; Ross has been an important contributor as author and co-author and editor-in-chief of our series of special issues focused exclusively on patient safety, a best-read series with exceptional longevity as measured by readership. And much more: his name actually appears 425 times on the Longwoods website – the home base for all we publish. This reflects his role as author, co-author, editor and reviewer of articles, as well as a regular presenter at our "Breakfast with the Chiefs" series – early morning face-to-face interactions with his devotees, peers and colleagues.

In addition, Ross is lead author of the book High Performing Healthcare Systems: Delivering Quality by Design, which profiles selected systems from across the globe and the all-too familiar obstacles they had to overcome in order to deliver high-quality and sustainable care every day.

Since we started to benefit from his contributions, Ross Baker has also served the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (now the Canadian Foundation for Health Improvement); chaired the Advisory Panel on Avoidable Hospitalizations; been "on call" for health ministries across the country; acted as a board member of the Health Quality Council of Saskatchewan; been instrumental in leading the Safer Healthcare Now! national campaign; chaired the Advisory Group for the Canadian Patient Safety Institute as well as the Quality Healthcare Network in Ontario; and served on the Executive Committee of the Quality Management Network for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. I will leave his full profile to your search engines.

Ross Baker as editor-in-chief is the readers' choice as demonstrated by the popularity of his contributions to the knowledge and networks in Canada and further afield. And, so, Healthcare Quarterly begins its 16th year with an experienced hand managing the ideas, opinions, policies and practices that make up its content. We are grateful to Ross for agreeing to take on this challenge and so serve Canadians and their healthcare at home and beyond.

W. Anton Hart
Publisher