A Message from the new Editor-in-Chief: Impact, Revisioning, and Welcome

January 25, 2024

Perspectives in Primary Care (formally the Primary Care Review) features perspectives from practitioners and students representing organizations, practices, and institutions across the country and around the world. All opinions expressed in this article are owned by the author(s).

I am grateful to Dr. Rebekah Rollston, the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the Primary Care Review, for building a platform to amplify voices in primary care scholarship, advocacy, and stories. Under Dr. Rollston’s skilled leadership, what started as an online blog in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic became a robust publication of nearly 200 articles read more than 230,000 times by medical professionals, students, and community members around the world. The Review’s commitment to publishing the words of not only clinicians and researchers, but also of the communities they study and care for, is rare and critically important. This engagement helps build shared language, understanding, and advocacy to knock down traditional barriers between our wide intended audience: community members, patients, medical and public health professionals, and researchers.

As a family medicine physician, I care for a largely immigrant population in Everett, Massachusetts that faces many challenges around the social determinants of health. I also served as co-Medical Director for Sexual and Reproductive Health at the Cambridge Health Alliance, where I have worked for the past five years. These roles, especially in the context of a global pandemic, have viscerally demonstrated the interplay between science, advocacy, and storytelling in educating and motivating others to enact change. I am excited to take the helm of a publication designed to further this multidisciplinary work toward social justice under the continued aegis of Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care.

The Primary Care Review now has a new name, Perspectives in Primary Care, chosen as a reflection of our ongoing commitment to publishing works that promote health equity by highlighting innovation and learning through stories told by diverse voices. We will continue to hold a space for sharing knowledge, experiences, and ideas to further primary care transformation, support health professionals' well-being and resilience, redefine value in primary care, and keep our patients’ lived experiences at the center.

Perspectives will have four main sections as outlined below in addition to sharing information about upcoming lectures, conferences, CME courses, and other events relevant to primary care. I invite you to submit your writings in any of the following categories to be considered for publication:

Personal stories — Pieces speaking directly about personal experiences or stories related to primary care, including narrative medicine pieces and patient stories.

Insights — Pieces contributing knowledge to medicine and research, including commentary regarding or synopses of original research, case studies, and clinical reviews.

Advocacy — Pieces educating around and advancing health equity and primary care, including advocacy around primary care topics, health equity in primary care, and innovation in primary care.

Reference  — Pieces with primary care tips and white papers written about topics in primary care or advocacy

We also hope that you will share your responses to our content via the Letter to the Editors page at any time.  
 
I look forward to serving our readership and contributors as Editor-in-Chief. Welcome to Perspectives in Primary Care.

 


About the author

Zoe Agoos' HeadshotZoe Agoos, MD, is the Editor-in-Chief of Perspectives in Primary Care, published by Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care. She has a background in anthropology and public health and is now a full-time family medicine physician at the Cambridge Health Alliance's (CHA) Everett Care Center. Her primary interests lie in health systems, health literacy, and primary care advocacy.

 

**Feature photo obtained with a standard license on Shutterstock. 

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