Do we take you where you want to go?

Publications, like everything else on this earth, evolve. Though still a youngster by any standard ? National Review of Medicine is eight months old with this issue ? there have already been some refinements to the original vision. For example, we've reworked What's in the News to make it easier for you to find the articles that are the most interesting to you; we've added columns like The Research File, which detail the latest developments at universities and government labs, and Beyond On-Call, which offers portraits of your colleagues who are changing the face of medicine in the community. Another addition, What to Tell Your Patients, looks at items covered in the lay press that are likely to drive patients to your practice seeking advice and treatment.

Changes like these are based on a single source: suggestions from readers. Your letters, emails, faxes and responses to surveys guide us in better fitting the paper to your needs. This issue is a case in point. We've added a new column called Personal Finance (a quiz tests your financial mettle) to go along with the popular Practice Management series. We've also revamped our headlines in two significant ways ? we've changed the typeface and reworked the wording to better reflect the contents of the articles they head.

The old typeface, which came from the Century family of fonts, was notable in that it came from the same family used in the body of the paper. Our new headline font, International Typeface Corporation (ITC) Charter, is based on a French font developed in the 1740s and was designed to be highly legible. And that's precisely why we chose it. Readers had suggested that the somewhat condensed Century font was hard to read, particularly when italics were used. In addition to being more readable, ITC Charter is intended to open up the page and add an extra touch of elegance.

The new headlines are also intended to make it easier for you to find the articles that are most pertinent to your practice. In our short life we've developed a reputation for what one reader calls "a certain sauciness." The sauciness remains, but you're now more likely to encounter it in the subtitle (called the "deck" in the trade) or in the headlines of the News in Brief items.

Is the new typeface easier to read? More pleasing to the eye?

Do the headlines take you where you want to go? Will the Personal Finance column be of use to you? Other "improvements" you'd like to see? Please send us a letter. As always, we'd dearly love to hear from you.

? David Elkins, Executive Editor