If you’re a regular reader of Family Practice Management, chances are it’s because you have found a number of useful articles in here; maybe you have pulled out some of our quick-reference tools to use in your practice or taken the FPM Practice Self-Test. I certainly hope you find FPM helpful, because I need to ask a favor: Would you help us make FPM even more helpful to you? I have two things in mind.

A quick consult

First, I would appreciate any suggestions you might have for articles. We’re just in the process of planning a year’s worth of FPM issues, so this is a good time to bring up topics you would like to see covered in the journal. Just remember that we have only a few pages per issue to cover a mighty big scope of topics. How big? Just think of your whole professional life and subtract the strictly clinical issues. What’s left is what we try to help with. Most of our topics fall under one or another of the following categories:

• Measuring and improving clinical care,

• Maximizing patient satisfaction,

• Maximizing reimbursement,

• Practicing ethically and legally,

• Using computers and information systems,

• Running an effective practice,

• Monitoring health care trends,

• Forming and operating groups and integrated systems,

• Succeeding in salaried practice,

• Maintaining life balance.

If you can think of anything in any of those areas that really bugs you, you may be on the track of an article suggestion. I certainly can’t guarantee that FPM will be able to turn every suggestion into an article, but I can promise that we’ll consider each one seriously.

Ongoing advice

The other way I’m hoping you can be of assistance is by volunteering to join a new “Panel of Reader Representatives.” I would like to identify a good-sized, broadly representative group of FPM readers willing to help shape the future of the journal by fielding occasional questions. I would anticipate that the time you would commit to the panel would be next to nothing – a few minutes a year. Every once in a while, I would send you a question. For example, I might ask you to rate your interest in a series of potential article topics or ask you which of a series of Medicare regulations troubles you most. That’s all. Your answer would typically take a minute or two and would help us make sure FPM addresses the needs of our whole audience in the best way possible.

If you have an article topic to suggest, or if you would like to become an FPM Reader Representative, please let me know. Just fill in the form and fax it back to me. Alternatively, you can send me an e-mail; my address is at the bottom of the form. If FPM has been helpful so far, just wait until you see how good it can be when you get involved!