Three quarters of a year ago, Amy S. Weichel, D.O., joined the staff of AFP as the seventh physician to serve as the John C. Rose Medical Editing Fellow at the editorial offices at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C. Her fellowship started at the first of July last year and was ushered in by a week-long internship with the AFP editorial staff and others at the AAFP headquarters (then in Kansas City, Mo.), culminating in the annual meeting of the editorial board.

Dr. Weichel, nearing the end of the year-long fellowship, reflects on a busy year. She came to AFP just after completing a residency in family medicine at Ohio University-Cuyahoga Falls General Hospital, where she served as chief resident. She received her medical degree from Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, Athens. After relocating with her husband to Washington, D.C., Amy settled in to the duties of the fellowship, which include both editorial tasks and responsibilities in faculty development.

As editorial fellow, Amy's editorial work has involved a wide range of tasks, such as developing ideas for the curriculum, soliciting manuscripts and other works from authors, reviewing manuscripts and editing. She helped develop and coordinate “ AFP 50 Years Ago,” the special series honoring AFP's anniversary. For a nostalgic stroll through the roots of family medicine, you might want to take note of this series, which started in January 1, 2000, and will continue through the year. (See page 2323 of this issue to revisit the state-of-the-art doctor's bag of half a century ago.) Lately, Amy has gotten a chance to write pieces for “Tips from Other Journals,” and she is starting to write an editorial.

In addition to the editorial work, Amy is involved in teaching an introduction to health course to first-year medical students, involving small group discussions and presentations of case studies, and she is also leading a group of third-year students through a series of case studies. Soon she'll start teaching an eight-week selective course on women's health issues for third-year students, which will cover topics such as the body-mind-spirit connection in addition to specific diseases and mental health issues of women.

On top of all of that, Amy precepts one day a week at Georgetown University's family medicine residency at Ft. Lincoln Family Practice and attends patients two days a week at the Student Primary Care Center on the Georgetown campus. There, she says, she has gained the experience of working with a younger, healthier patient population, on the whole, and has gotten a chance to practice some adolescent medicine.

What's next for Amy? After the end of June when she completes her fellowship, Amy plans to work full-time at the Student Primary Care Center. She says she hopes to keep her hand in editorial work as well. More than anything, she says, the editorial fellowship has taught her that there's more to putting a journal together than she ever imagined: more different kinds of people, more complex processes, more time demands. In short, she came to appreciate how manuscripts go through the publishing process and how an entire journal goes together. And now she's hooked.

Sound like a busy year? Sure. But that's not the end of it. Amy's taking one more leap this year—into motherhood. With Amy's first child expected in August, the fun is just starting. Our thanks go to Amy for a productive year so far, and our best wishes, too.