This issue of the journal wraps up an important series of articles focused on community health workers. Balcazar et al and Wilkinson et al provide important perspectives on a group of health care professionals who I am certain will shortly be the key part of the team. I want to thank both Noelle Wiggins and Lee Rosenthal for shepherding the editorial process on this topic.

We then continue with a general issue with a focus on both professional and managerial aspects of ambulatory care. Stults et al analyze shared medical appointments, a topic about which I continue to encourage readers to submit articles. Bauer et al discuss the all too familiar challenge of limited literacy for patients in the emergency department. Grande and colleagues highlight trade-offs on cost that patients and their families have to go through all the time. Davidson et al provide an analysis of a critical data issue-universal health identifiers. Dobes and Bernstein link quality-of-care metrics focused on disparities and dual eligibility. Mayer et al expand on aspects of community health workers in their analysis of peer support and primary care integration. Goldberg and colleagues provides a useful typology for understanding the manifold roles of primary care physicians in the burgeoning field of population health. Holt completes our issue with his irreverent perspective on the State of Texas.

-Norbert Goldfield, MD

Editor