Our prizes for best papers in the last year have become as eagerly awaited as the Oscars and are much more glamorous. As before, we have awarded GOLD, SILVER and BRONZE prizes in the following categories: paediatrics, adult clinical, basic science and epidemiology. This is the first of two reviews of manuscripts published in Thorax in 2014 dealing with manuscripts on the clinical aspects of paediatrics and adult respiratory medicine. Decisions are purely those of the editors and deputy editors. Our only restriction has been to not consider manuscripts exclusively from Imperial and Oxford because we have conflicts of interest. Next month we deal with basic science and epidemiology manuscripts and reveal the overall winner.

Paediatric year in review

The year 2014 has featured a large number of strong paediatric manuscripts covering the whole range of respiratory medicine, including really important data on the early origins of adult lung disease. Patients with traditional ‘paediatric’ diseases, such as cystic fibrosis (CF) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy are now surviving into adult life, further blurring the barriers between adult and paediatric chest physicians. But nonetheless, this year has re-emphasised that aspects of what appears to be the same disease are different and show developmental changes. We cannot unlock the secrets of disease in children by studying adults.

The early bird gets an unwanted worm: Early life events are of huge importance long term. The Melbourne cohort has run for >40 years; and this year they showed that severe asthma at the age of 10 years is a bigger risk factor for COPD than smoking, at least in their cohort, and furthermore, at age 10 years the COPD adults had the lowest spirometry.1 Interestingly, the rate of decline of lung function did not seem different between the groups. Our editorialists highlight the key importance of optimising lung health early—a …