bring a more international flavor to the team The other major change in the third edition, however, was the addition of Gil Wernovsky, recognizing that the United States remained the epicenter of advances in the diagnosis and treatment of congenital cardiac disease The book itself was significantly improved by the ability of our publisher to condense the editorial material into a single volume The single volume, furthermore, was supported by electronic material and was in full color, with uniformly superb illustrations provided by Gemma Price Now, in this fourth edition, the textbook can truly claim to have achieved global prominence This is true not only in terms of geography, but also the disciplines for which it aims to cater Thus, Jim Tweddell joins the team as the first surgical editor, while Kathy Mussatto brings much-needed nursing excellence Gil Wernovsky has now taken over the role of editorial director The overall team is now based firmly in the United States Another significant addition, nonetheless, is that the team is joined by Krishna Kumar KK brings to the table the amazing advances being made in the Indian subcontinent The written and illustrative components of the book, furthermore, are now supported by video material, collated and organized by Justin Tretter, with whom I have been particularly pleased to collaborate extensively over the last few years We have been sorry to lose Dan Penny from our editorial team but pleased that he was still able to contribute in updating the chapters he produced and edited for the third edition When we started our endeavour, in the build-up to the publication of the first edition in 1987, we chose to base the book on the significance of anatomy We have been able to retain this focus throughout all editions It is amazing to me as to how, with the passage of time, the anatomic features are demonstrated with ever-increasing accuracy during life This is demonstrated even more so in this edition The images produced by virtual dissection of computed tomographic datasets, at least to my eyes, now show the morphologic features at least as well as we are able with the hearts in our hands In the first three editions, the other editors indulged my own idiosyncracies, permitting me to expunge abbreviations and provide a uniform style I fancy that may well have changed in this edition For me, personally, it has been a huge privilege to be able to pursue my “hobby” as my career I have been equally privileged to meet and collaborate with wonderful people in the field of pediatric cardiology, not least those who have fulfilled the editorial roles in producing the previous editions of this book I am truly gratified, therefore, that the current team of editors and the publisher chose to title this fourth edition in my name Nothing could serve as better recognition of all I hoped to achieve when starting my career as a cardiac anatomist, supported so strongly initially by Elliot Shinebourne and then by Fergus Macartney and Michael Tynan It is now my hope that the book will continue to go from strength to strength in future editions It is in good editorial hands In closing my foreword, I must acknowledge the huge contributions made to the previous editions by my wife, Christine She continues to support me strongly Both she and I hope we have the opportunity to read the next edition! Robert H Anderson London January 2019 Preface It is hard to imagine, as Bob Anderson points out in his foreword, that it is 36 years since the first edition of this textbook was published Bob's contributions to our field are legendary, of course, and his contributions to this book similarly so The fourth addition is no exception, and while it is true that not every line has been subjected to the Andersonian “red pen” treatment (yes, some abbreviations and split infinitives have crept in), the roots of the book continue to lie in his detailed exposition of segmental analysis of the congenitally malformed heart and its anatomic underpinnings It is a fitting tribute that this has become Anderson's textbook While, sadly, publication of the first edition does not predate the birth of any of the current editors, it does predate our involvement in the field The circle of professional life, nonetheless, has seen us use the book as trainees, contribute to the book as chapter authors, and now oversee the development of the book as it looks toward the future Some things have not changed, and even Bob has managed to keep the nomenclature of some things constant! But there have, of course, been extraordinary clinical advances during the lifetime of this tome Back in 1987, when the book established itself as one of the leading resources in our field, the arterial switch procedure for transposition was just becoming established, the Norwood procedure for hypoplastic left heart syndrome was rarely performed, and while cross-sectional echocardiography was fully established as the diagnostic modality of choice, its transesophageal modality was at the very beginnings of its evolution, and color flow Doppler was a few years away Furthermore, while the first MRI image of the heart was obtained in that year, it would be a decade or more before it became part of our routine clinical practice Necessarily, therefore, just as our field has developed, so has our book The delivery of outstanding clinical care in congenital heart disease has always relied on the multidisciplinary team approach The editorial team now reflects that more appropriately The structure of the book also reflects our changing world