Editorial

OP
OPEN
PEN

ITCH from scratch

Ethan A. Lerner, MD, PhD
Welcome to ITCH, an online, peer-reviewed, open-access scientic journal, the ofcial journal of the International Forum for the
Study of Itch (IFSI). ITCH is published by Wolters Kluwer. The
rst international workshop on itch took place in Singapore in
2001. The most recent biennial congress was held in Nara, Japan,
in 2015. Since the third congress in 2005, the abstracts have been
published in Acta Dermato-Venerological and are available
online. Acta D-V has been a generous and good friend to IFSI,
and we thank Agneta Andersson and Anders Vahlquist in particular. We look forward to future collaborations.
We will publish papers on subjects ranging from basic science
to clinical observation, all things related to the scientic study of
itch at the bedside and the bench. The launch of ITCH comes at
an auspicious time. Advances in understanding the underlying
mechanisms, its impact on quality of life, and the development of
new investigative and therapeutic approaches call for a journal
dedicated to this evolving eld. Contributions to ITCH are welcomed from all investigators with an interest in the eld. You
need not be a member of IFSI to contribute but you are welcome
to join and participate in our biennial meeting. (Our next congress will take place in Wroclaw, Poland, in the fall of 2017.
Please visit itchforum.net for further information.)
Itch is a pervasive, challenging clinical problem and a fascinating biological puzzle. While manifest in the skin, itch is much
more than a skin problem. It is a disease in addition to being a
symptom. It can ruin peoples lives. Itch can be a sign of malignancy. It is often the main concern of patients with renal failure or
cholestatic liver disease. It is associated with myriad allergic,
inammatory, and infectious processes. It can have a neuropathic
or psychogenic origin. It is the sine qua non of atopic dermatitis.
Studies on itch encompass the skin, the immune system, and the
peripheral and central nervous systems. The dimensions of itch,
from measurement of intensity to its impact on different populations, are beginning to be unraveled.

I am excited to be working with Wolters Kluwer, the publisher

of ITCH. Wolters Kluwer has the expertise, capability, and global reach to help us evolve and innovate our journal content to
meet the needs of our authors and readers worldwide. Partnering
with Wolters Kluwer will allow us to tap into their network of
health care solutions, including the Ovid medical research platform, as well as their global society partnerships, to help us
develop new channels for disseminating ITCH content and
building IFSI.
I deeply appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with an
immensely knowledgeable editorial board that includes young
and established investigators and clinicians. Please contact me if
you would like to review manuscripts and with ideas about how
you would like to see ITCH evolve.

Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

The author does not have any nancial involvement to declare in relation to the
content of this editorial. Ethan A. Lerner, MD, PhD is the Editor-in-Chief of Itch.
Copyright 2016 The Authors. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of
International Forum for the Study of Itch. All rights reserved. This is an open-access
article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non
Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to
download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be
changed in any way or used commercially.
Itch (2016) 1;e1
Received and accepted 27 April 2016
Published online 15 June 2016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/itx.0000000000000001

Lerner. Itch (2016) 00:00

Itch

Itch Editorial Board

Editor-in-Chief
Ethan Lerner, Boston, MA, USA
Harvard Medical School
Associate Editors
Earl Carstens, Davis, CA, USA
University of California

Andrea Evers, Leiden, Germany

Leiden University

Tey Hong Liang, Singapore

National Skin Centre

Hideki Mochizuki, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Temple University School of Medicine

Martin Metz, Berlin, Germany

Charit-University Hospital
Managing Editor
Paula Pereira, Boston, MA, USA
Massachusetts General Hospital
Editorial Board
Diana Bautista, Berkeley, CA, USA
University of California

Thierry Olivry, Raleigh, NC, USA

North Carolina State University

Zhou-Feng Chen, St. Louis, MO, USA

Washington University School of Medicine

Matthias Ringkamp, Baltimore, MD, USA

Johns Hopkins

Suephy Chen, Atlanta, GA, USA

Emory University School of Medicine

Sarah Ross, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

University of Pittsburgh

Xinzhong Dong, Baltimore, MD, USA

Johns Hopkins University

Martin Schmelz, Mannheim, Germany

University of Heidelberg

Toshiya Ebata, Tokyo, Japan

Chitofuna Dermatology Clinic

Jonathan Silverberg, Chicago, IL, USA

Northwestern University

Alan Fleischer, Lexington, KY, USA

University of Kentucky

Sonja Staender, Mnster, Germany

University Hospital of Mnster

Richard Gallo, San Diego, CA, USA

University of California

Martin Steinhoff, Dublin, Ireland

University College Dublin

Glenn Giesler
University of Minnesota

Yangang Sun, Shanghai, China

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Ichiro Katayama, Suita, Japan

Osaka University

Jacek Szepietowski, Wroclaw, Poland

Wroclaw Medical University

Andreas Kremer, Erlangen, Germany

Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen

Kenji Takamori, Chiba, Japan

Juntendo University

Robert LaMotte, New Haven, CT, USA

Yale University School of Medicine

Elke Weisshaar, Heidelberg, Germany

Ruprecht-Karls University

Theodoro Mauro, San Francisco, CA, USA

University of California

Gil Yosipovitch, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Temple University School of Medicine
Consulting Editors

Jeffrey Bernhard, Worcester, MA, USA

University of Massachusetts Medical School

Hermann Handwerker, Erlangen, Germany

University of Erlangen

Corresponding Author
Ethan A. Lerner, MD, PhD
Editor-in-Chief
Itch
Harvard Medical School
Massachusetts General Hospital
Cutaneous Biology Research Center
Building 149, 13th Street
Charlestown, MA 02129
email: elerner@mgh.harvard.edu