Abstract
I have been thinking for a while about what I would write in this editorial when I became president of the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS). I found that it was really an opportunity, although a demanding task to take this position in the year 2000 in a rapidly changing world that is not short of new but exciting challenges. The marked progress in communications, the increased public awareness of respiratory health and environmental issues, the development of new technologies, changes in traditional ways to support research and the increasing demand on practitioners to acquire new knowledge and abilities makes it an unprecedented environment that asks us to rethink the way we used to do research and practice medicine.