This issue of Education for Health is aligned with our annual meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, held in collaboration with Rural WONCA; the theme is People, Place, and Policy for Community Wellness.  In many ways, this issue is emblematic of those concepts.  People are the focus of refugee eye care, and “seeing people, not patients, a strength based approach to asset mapping” which emphasizes the humanity in the individuals we care for.   Place features prominently in the piece on the ravages of war in Sudan on the lives of medical students, in the determinants of community oriented medical education, in the staircase model of community involvement, and in the medical education of US citizens in Cuba.  Policy is broadly represented by the innovative education methods presented in tele-urgent care, flipped classroom, and gamification papers.

Mental health papers are starting to appear in this issue with a piece on student mistreatment, and imposter phenomenon and depression.  In future issues, we would like to see papers about the mental health of the people we care for in our communities. 

If you are reading this at the conference in South Africa, consider the ways in which the papers in this issue contribute to your insights about people, place, and policy and their relation to community wellness.  If you are not at the conference, join the conversation through reading and responding with your own submissions, and your letters.

Bill Burdick

Co-Editor

Thailand, Iran, Sudan, and Brazil are represented in this issue with reports on rural recruitment, educational environment, a new teaching tool, and the impact of war.  Repeated studies, including one in our next issue, demonstrate the predominance of authors from high resource countries in academic publications.  We continue to encourage authors from the rest of the world to submit their work so our readers get a more balanced view of the state of health workforce education.

A commentary from Guest Co-Editors, Sailaja Musunuri and Tine Hansen-Turton from Woods Services, provides global context for our new series on mental health.  Advances in neurophysiology provide better diagnostic and treatment options but they may be thwarted by stigma and access issues that deter people in need from getting help.  Voices from all corners of the world need to be heard on these issues.

Efficient manuscript processing is the key to a vibrant journal.  The average number of days from submission to acceptance for Education for Health is 49, a dramatic improvement from a year ago, and in keeping with industry standards.  Our reviewer team is doing valiant work providing timely feedback to authors, and they could use your help to offset the workload.  We would particularly like to see more published authors from this journal volunteer to become peer reviewers.  If you are interested, contact me directly at drwburdick@gmail.com. 

Finally, Payal Bansal will remain a Co-Editor but she is taking a well deserved sabbatical after many years of service to attend to other responsibilities.  We look forward to her return.

Bill Burdick

Co-Editor, Education for Health

Several papers in this issue focus on social accountability – perceptions of education staff and students, use of storytelling to achieve deeper understanding, and implementation of new education tools.  A related paper addresses education about planetary health in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, we describe the new 2024-2027 TUFH Strategic Plan which highlights social accountability.

We go beyond social accountability with a pair of papers on influences on career pathways - one looking at high school students and the other at early medical students.   Another set of papers on education innovations addresses impact of active learning methods, reverse role simulation, and virtual shadowing.  Our practical advice paper offers lessons learned in development of mission and vision statements.

With 3 Commentaries, 6 Research papers, 1 Student Contribution, 1 Practical Advice Paper, 2 Brief Communications, and 2 Letters to the Editor, there is a lot to digest.    If you have comments on any of these papers, please send us your letters!