Beyond the Heartbeats: First Issue Announced, Publication Date to Follow

Editor-in-Chief A T M Haidar Khan announced today that Beyond the Heartbeats — Research, Perspectives & Questions Beyond the Memoir — is in preparation, with Volume 1, Issue 1 expected to follow. No publication date has been confirmed yet. The publication will extend the questions raised in the memoir The Silence Between Two Heartbeats into cited research and first-person family accounts of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE).

The first issue, themed "The Watching Hours," will take its starting point from a single chapter of the book and ask what the published research literature actually says about it: after a high-risk infant leaves neonatal intensive care, is there yet a safe, practical, non-invasive, clinically validated way to detect abnormal brain activity at home when a caregiver notices something concerning? The issue will not claim to answer that question. It will trace, with citations, what is currently known, what is not, and where the real gap sits.

WHAT THE FIRST ISSUE WILL INCLUDE

A Research Digest summarizing the current published evidence on caregiver observation and home seizure detection.

A Research Gaps Spotlight naming the specific missing piece in that research — not a better sensor, but a validated pathway for what happens after a caregiver notices something concerning.

A From the Book reflection tied to the memoir's Chapter Nine, "Six Months Without a Night."

The first entry in the Family Voices department, alongside an open call for submissions from HIE parents and caregivers.

A Clinician Corner research framework, to be marked pending: the publication has not yet confirmed a clinical advisor to review it, and will say so directly rather than presenting the piece as a finished interview.

A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR

"A memoir can notice things a clinical record isn't designed to capture — what a caregiver fears at 3 a.m., what goes unrecorded between hospital visits," said Khan, the publication's Editor-in-Chief and author of The Silence Between Two Heartbeats. "Noticed is not the same as proven. This publication exists to keep those two things visibly separate, issue by issue."

Beyond the Heartbeats does not currently claim, and will not claim at launch, peer review, institutional endorsement, or affiliation with any hospital, university, or organization, and has not yet filed for an ISSN. Its full editorial standards, medical disclaimer, and contributor guidelines will be published alongside the first issue.

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Ahead of publication, Beyond the Heartbeats is seeking Family Voices submissions from HIE parents and caregivers, and welcomes inquiries from clinicians, researchers, and prospective advisory contributors. Submission and contributor guidelines, along with the confirmed publication date once set, will be posted at thesilence.us.

Editorial News is a standing department for announcements about this publication itself — new issues, policy changes, and contributor calls — kept separate from the Research Digest, Research Gaps Spotlight, and other departments so publication news is never mistaken for research content.