As I exited the operating room, my fellow cardiac surgeons congratulated me.

"What's going on?" I asked, completely puzzled.

"Guess what? Your paper on the application of pulmonary artery catheters in cardiac surgery has been accepted by Ann Thorac Surg. It's even indexed on Medline!"

My colleague's words made my eyes widen slightly. Getting indexed on Medline was expected, but being accepted by Ann Thorac Surg, a particularly selective surgical journal, was quite the ...