The concept of peer review was developed long before the scholarly journal. In fact, the peer review process is thought to have been used as a method of evaluating written work in ancient Greece. The peer review process was first described by a physician named Ishaq bin Ali al-Rahwi of Syria, who lived in 854-931 CE, in his book Ethics of the Physician. There, he stated that physicians must take notes describing the state of their patients’ medical conditions upon each visit. Following treatment, the notes were scrutinized by a local medical council to determine whether the physician had met the required standards of medical care.