The first editorial board meeting of the () was held on November 8, 2019 at the Side Bar Grille, Sheraton Boston Hotel, Boston, MA, United States. Ruo-Yu Ma, Director of Editorial Office, on behalf of the Baishideng Publishing Group (BPG), organized the meeting with the great help of Professor Ke-Qin Hu, Journal Editor-in-Chief. There were six editorial board members, including two Editors-in-Chief and one administrative director of the editorial office at the meeting, discussing future strategies of the journal's development. The editorial board provided BPG a number of suggestions in regard to the business plan and quality control of the . Regarding the business aspect, the editorial board suggested that BPG should advertise the at the international Hepatology and Gastroenterology conferences and promote the social media. On the scientific aspect, the editorial board suggested that the assessment systems for managing the reviewers and the editorial board members are necessary, and that the BPG should make efforts to attract more high-quality manuscript submissions. An additional comment was to continue to foster a scientific culture for the journal. In conclusion, it was noted that these new ideas expressed during the meeting will bring the to the next level. In the future, the BPG and the editorial board will increase communication and collaboration in order to further the development of the .