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The aim of this paper was to provide quantitative data about clinical investigation in Argentina. We searched MEDLINE which is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's bibliographic database that contains more than 18 million references to journal articles in life sciences; 5400 journals in 39 languages are listed. In 2009 almost 850,000 papers were cited in MEDLINE and Argentina provided 0.33% of them, 90% of these in English. The number of papers published in Spanish is diminishing every year and similar results are observed with the German, French and other languages. Using the tools provided by MEDLINE we searched for papers that could be classified as clinical. We restricted our search to the word "patients" in the text and "hospital" in the address provided by the authors. Along the last 10 years, from 2000 to 2009, about 16% of the papers published from Argentina contain the word "patient" and this percentage is reduced to half if we combine the word "patient" with the word "hospital" in the address. If we search for papers written in Spanish with these two restrictions the number is much lower. The number of articles from Argentina followed the upward trend in the total of articles cited in MEDLINE in the last 10 years. This local increase was due to basic investigation papers because the percentage of clinical articles was relatively constant during these years. In conclusion, these data provide a survey of an area with scanty quantitative information.

The historical trajectory of Medicina (Buenos Aires) and the current challenges accompanying its seventieth birthday are briefly described. The initial objectives at its foundation were to contribute to the advance of medicine, and support both clinical and experimental research in Argentina. These objectives continue to be valid. The editorial presence of the journal continues to be necessary. It is published following the international quality standards, the peer review system, and it is indexed in the main international data bases for scientific journals.

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Medicina (Buenos Aires) an International Symposium was held at the National Academy of Medicine of Buenos Aires on the 6-7th of October 1999, under the title of Clinical investigation in the next millennium. This meeting was a success as evidenced by the 376 registered attendants. Sixty years of uninterrupted publication is an uncommon feat in our midst and this could be achieved on the basis of a number of factors which include, the initiative of those who founded the journal, the unfailing motivation and dedication of the Editorial Board and primarily the authors who have trusted us with their manuscripts. Of the many important papers published, we have selected a few which proved to be milestones in the development of Argentine biomedicine. It is to be hoped that the future will bring an increase in our impact index through more and even better papers eventually reflecting the authentic scientific value of our country.