If you received this issue, chances are that we've avoided major Y2K glitches and are off to a great start in AFP's 50th year of publication. In case you flipped straight to your favorite starting place without stopping to admire this issue's cover, with its striking illustration by William B. Westwood (reproduced above), you might not have noticed the logo on the lower right-hand corner of the cover marking the start of AFP's anniversary celebration. The logo appears as part of a special series of features commemorating this milestone.

On page 57, you'll find a new year-long feature called “ AFP 50 Years Ago,” which offers historical tidbits from the first year of the journal's publication, along with commentaries highlighting 50 years of family medicine. The “Report from the Publisher's Office,” reprinted from the prepublication issue of GP—the journal that preceded AFP—kicks off this celebratory feature. The publisher of GP, determined to make the journal the “best in the field,” with a “fresh approach to the presentation of medical literature,” was clearly far-sighted: without a doubt AFP has reached those goals and stands far apart in a field “crowded with dogs and cats.” By following the simple editorial philosophies set 50 years ago, AFP has earned an immodestly high ranking among medical journals.

In keeping with the spirit of its founding editorial philosophies, AFP has planned an editorial calendar for 2000 that will offer readers a fresh selection of practical articles and features. The already rich smorgasbord of features will be enhanced with a variety of evidence-based reviews, case studies in preventive medicine, an office procedures series and a series of articles and features covering end-of-life issues. In addition, an ever-broadening scope of family practice departments will be contributing articles for the “Practical Therapeutics” and “Problem-Oriented Diagnosis” series, supplementing the usual collection of timely reviews.

Of note, this issue contains the first in a three-part series of articles derived from the 1999 USPHS/IDSA guidelines for the prevention of opportunistic infection in patients with HIV infection (see page 163), which updates 1997 recommendations.

While developing new features and updates that rekindle AFP, our editors continually seek ways of perfecting the journal. If you've been looking for “Special Medical Reports” and “Physician's Bookshelf ” in this issue and can't find them—don't worry. They're still in the journal, but the names have been changed to better reflect their content. “Special Medical Reports” has been renamed “Practice Guidelines” (see page 232: “The 2000 Harmonized Immunization Schedule”), while “Physician's Bookshelf ” has been changed to “Multimedia Review,” reflecting broader coverage of electronic media such as Web sites and CDs (see page 259).

We hope you enjoy the year of AFP and our stroll through AFP's past as much as our editors have enjoyed reminiscing about the remarkable changes in medicine over the past 50 years, while planning exciting advances for the next millennium.