From the Executive Editor

Deborah Eastwood

Perhaps fittingly, as 2024 springs into life, this issue is all about the future and most specifically the art and science of training our younger colleagues in the fields of trauma and orthopaedic surgery. There are rough seas for our colleagues to traverse as they train and many obstacles to overcome as depicted on our front cover by ST6 trainee Rebecca Mazel: it is important that we help them to look forward to the shores of a safe harbour and not to let them concentrate on the difficulties they have faced. As highlighted by Deepa Bose, the SAC Chair for T&O, to support our trainees, we need to understand the needs of the trainers and ensure that they too are well supported and prepared for the delivery of training and the core competencies (p44). The trainers need a tool kit (p46), a philosophy (p52) and an understanding of their direction of travel (p50).

There is much to learn if the articles featuring robotic surgery on pages 28 and 32 are correct – and they are! Change is with us and we must adapt and make it work for us and our patients. We may need to work differently and the Elective Hub Toolkit outlined on page 24 will help us do this. Along with improving the way we work, the National Consultant Information Programme (NCIP) on page 40 will give us a better understanding of the work we do by perhaps giving more depth and detail regarding our patients, their procedures and their outcomes. The data from NCIP will supplement that available from the NJR helping us all to improve our services and identify areas for development. Unbelievably (to me at least!) the NJR is soon to be 21: the third in our series of articles to celebrate its 20-year milestone is on page 20 and asks the pertinent question of who benefits?

Despite all these advances, it is sometimes important to remind ourselves of our beginnings. It is over 40 years since the British Casting Certificate became a nationally recognised qualification and nine years since the launch of the revised casting standards. The programmes have diversified and grown over time (p36) with a rewarding and ongoing collaboration between Mark Rees, the BOA National Casting Training Advisor and the BOA Casting Committee.

As the world around us continues to be troubled, Hiro Tanaka’s piece on page 16 reminds us that the world can change in the blink of an eye and asks us to ask this question of ourselves: what really matters?

There is good news too – four colleagues of the broader orthopaedic community were recognised in the New Year Honours list, we welcome Dominic Meek as a Trustee and our recent committee appointments represent the diversity of our membership.

On a personal note, I am delighted that the UKHSA/BOA study looking at the radiation exposure that our members receive has started with the results expected in the summer. This will give us the data we need to drive forward appropriate PPE and educational changes. On behalf of the BOA, I would like to thank all the centres that are taking part and Lynn Hutchings and Charlotte Lewis for all their hard work.