As the newly appointed Editor of The Hong Kong Practitioner, I feel very privileged to be able to serve the family medicine community and the medical communities at large. Since its inauguration in 1977, the then Hong Kong College of General Practitioners has been well aware of the needs for an official journal to serve the medical practitioners in primary care practice. In its embryonic stage of development, The Hong Kong Practitioner was first published in the form of a newsletter. The Journal then underwent a series of modifications and evolutions and became known as The Hong Kong Practitioner in 1979. It is easy for us to describe the changes summarised in a few sentences but it is not difficult to imagine that the evolution process owed a great deal to the hard work and dedication of our forefathers and predecessors. The circulation of the Hong Kong Practitioner has now grown to over 4,000 copies per monthly issue, distributed to members, subscribers and institutions locally, in China, and at various locations in the Asia Pacific region and internationally.

In 1997, thanks to my predecessor Dr Lam Tai-pong’s great leadership, the Editorial Board has managed to get the Journal indexed in EMBASE/ Excerpta Medica. It is another developmental milestone for the Hong Kong Practitioner as an international journal.

So, back to the original question – how can we help?

The scientific contents of the Hong Kong Practitioner, that many of the readers are familiar with, include sections on original research papers, update articles, discussion paper, clinical challenges, radiological conferences, and so on. Looking back the section on original research papers has received relatively fewer submissions than the others.

Family Medicine, like other medical specialties, is changing fast. The rate of expansion of medical knowledge relevant to family practice can easily leave us behind. On the other hand, original family practice research is scarce despite the large number of medical consultations taking place in the community everyday. It is understandable that time constraint is a factor that may affect the output of family medicine based original research. However, it all depends on how badly one wants something. If one is desperate for a certain goal, time will be found for it.

The relative inexperience in the knowledge of research methodology and so on can be remedied by various courses provided by local tertiary institutions and elsewhere. Some of them do not involve any travelling as they are provided online. Again, if you want it badly, you can do it.

Family physicians are a heterogeneous group of medical practitioners working in different settings, so the individual needs may be different. The Hong Kong Practitioner has tried out new ideas to cater for different needs of our readers over time and will continue to do so in the future. To that aim, suggestions from readers and potential readers will be most welcome. The Editorial Board will certainly do its best to consider all the suggestions for the betterment and advancement of family medicine as a discipline.

As an Editorial Board, we pledge to achieve our mission, “To promote the development of quality family medicine/general practice in Hong Kong and the region”.