A Note from the Editor

With this issue, the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved (JHCPU) enters its fifteenth volume. The happy task of introducing JHCPU in a somewhat new guise falls to me.

First, I am proud to introduce our newly reconstituted Editorial Board, the membership of which you will find listed on the inside front cover. The board is notable both for its wide-ranging and high-reaching accomplishments and for its diversity of identity and areas of expertise. Our goal is to ensure that medically underserved populations are represented at JHCPU in the most effective way possible. I would like to thank the members of the board, new and continuing, for their willingness to serve. Dr. Rueben C. Warren, a continuing board member, deserves our special thanks for the work he has volunteered over the past year to bring about the changes we see now.

Next, please note that JHCPU has entered into two new partnerships. This year marks the official beginning of our cooperative relationship with the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved (ACU), a Washington, DC-based professional organization for clinicians working with medically underserved people and for those who seek to support them. This umbrella group provides a forum at which everyone interested in the health of underserved populations can connect with one another, find tools for enhancing work, join forces in taking on shared challenges, and support the work of the front-line clinician.

When Dr. Kyu Rhee, the current president of ACU, and Dr. Ellis Frazier, then its president, visited Meharry at the invitation of Dr. Rueben Warren and myself in May of 2003, we all knew that the fit between our organizations was a good one. Meharry Medical College has dedicated itself to the education of health care professionals for the underserved since its founding in 1876. In ACU, Meharry saw a young, energetic partner that offered to work with us in our common mission. The insight, vigor and commitment that Drs. Rhee and Frazier bring to their work at Unity Health Care in the District of Columbia (Rhee) and the Ross Health District Primary Care Center in Chillicothe, Ohio (Frazier), are good examples of what the ACU membership promises for the cause of health and health care for the underserved. Dr. Rhee's contribution in the current issue is the first in what will be a regular series of ACU columns. We look forward to a long and productive alliance.

Beginning this year, a full subscription to JHCPU comes as a benefit of membership in ACU (as well as being available by individual and institutional subscription). Everyone, whether he or she works directly with underserved populations or simply wants to support those who do, is welcome as a member of this valuable organization. On our back pages information about becoming an ACU member appears. We hope many of you will take advantage of this opportunity.

Our next piece of news, obvious to readers of this issue already, is also exciting: Our new publisher is Johns Hopkins University Press (JHUP). The oldest university press in the United States, JHUP promises to bring increased prominence to the Journal and already brings with it first-rate services. You will notice that subscription prices have gone down with the move to JHUP: in 2004, an individual subscription costs $60 and an institutional subscription costs $285. The reduction in subscription prices and our new cover are just the first signs of what we at the Journal know is going to be a long and mutually beneficial publishing relationship with JHUP.

Finally, I would like to reach out to you, our readers. At the end of this issue, you will see a list of books recently received in this office. We welcome readers with suitable expertise to serve as reviewers of books that we receive. If one of the titles interests you, please e-mail me at vbrennan@mmc.edu and let me know of your...