This issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (JABFM) is our dedicated Global Theme Issue on Poverty and Human Development, in which JABFMis participating in an international collaboration with more than 230 journals that have agreed to a common online release date of October 22, 2007. The Global Theme Issue initiative is organized by the Council of Science Editors, and a complete list of participating journals is on its Web site (http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/globalthemeissue.cfm). With the common release date, science journals throughout the world will simultaneously publish papers to raise awareness of and to stimulate interest and research into poverty and human development.