From the Executive Editor

Deborah Eastwood

Well, fancy that... I find myself the Editor of a prestigious journal – one of the many surprises that 2020 has dealt me and us! I admit I am looking forward to carrying on where Bob left off under the expert guidance of Nick, Annette and my colleagues Hiro Tanaka and Rhidian Morgan Jones. We will continue to try and play nicely with the new kid on the block – the Transient Journal where Fergal Monsell helps us curate the content!

For all this tumultuous year has taught us, I for one will be glad to welcome in the new year – I am not naïve enough to think that ‘all will be well’ in 2021 with COVID-19 merely a distant memory but I do believe I will approach it with renewed optimism and determination. This year has taught us to pull together in a way that has been unique to me in my career-time and perhaps in yours too. Our front cover echoes all our thoughts when we say thank you to our colleagues, our patients, our families and friends who have helped us through…

One high spot of 2020 was the BOA medical student essay prize which attracted a record number of entries and a worthy winner in Silvia Allikmets (page 17). The BOA Council is now much more knowledgeable about the benefits of social media and as a result, several of us are now active twitterers! Never let it be said that we don’t move with the times. If these students are the future of orthopaedics, I am very impressed. Whilst on the subject of ‘youngsters’, I was glad to hear that a past president of BOTA enjoyed his BOA supported fellowship to France (page 10).

2021 sees four new recruits joining Council, bringing some welcome diversity, as well as huge knowledge and experience, to the leadership of our Association. You can read about them on page 18. It is clear too from the articles on NICE Guidelines including the call for involvement from our members, our response to Cumberledge and the future of UK plc, and on the role of the first contact practitioners (FCPs) in the delivery of MSK services that the future is looking bright. We must ensure that it lives up to its promise.

The subspecialty section on amputation shows how far this quintessential original surgical procedure has moved with the times and rightly highlights the value of prehabilitation when possible. Innovation has always been a key aspect of our profession as illustrated in the short biography of Lipmann-Kessel. The fields of war may have taught us much but he felt that ‘exciting and wonderous enterprise is more profitably to be found in peacetime’. This year during our war against the virus, significant and rapid scientific progress has been made in the field of vaccine development with perhaps wider implications for the management of other infectious diseases too, another reason for hope for 2021.

Despite my hopes for 2021, the past year has been difficult and Ben Caesar’s article (page 31) about the Double Pandemic we have been facing reminds us to be kind to ourselves and to others.

On behalf of the BOA and all of us at the JTO, I thank you all for your support and I wish you all some fun and relaxation over the festive season...