From the Executive Editor

Deborah Eastwood

So the New Year certainly started with a bang... not due to the fireworks that had all been cancelled but courtesy of the ‘New Variant’ of an ‘Old Foe’. We were straight back into the thick of things and recovery is only just starting but there are some green shoots of spring appearing and reasons to be cheerful.

And what do you do when the nights are still long and work is not quite what you would like it to be… perhaps relax, put your feet up, curl up on the sofa and peruse a magazine or indeed the JTO? Well, I think you should... this edition is a pot pourri of interesting bits and pieces for you to dip in and out of. Like any good magazine, this edition of the JTO has a travel section where we will take you abroad (something we are all sadly missing) to Malawi, and a reflection by John Cashman on what has been achieved there during his tenure and beyond (page 36). Reflecting is a little bit of a theme this issue with Andrea Sott writing about her experiences not only, of rising to the challenges of a Medical Director post but in COVID-19 times too and the knock on effects of the ‘casual comment’ both good and bad (page 24). However, if its reflection you are after, look no further than the excellent article by Alister Hart looking at Ronnie Furlong the man and his hip (page 20) and going even further back, Ian Stephen our BOA Archivist, reflects on the origins or our Association (page 18). Looking at that menu and the signatures on it, always gives me a slight shiver down my spine.

We can’t spend all our time in the past though so the challenges of being a trainee and where you are going to be trained is a constant concern at present – but hopefully the words by Ran Wei and Rob Gregory will be reassuring. I will take this opportunity to remind you that the new curriculum starts in six months time and trainers as well as trainees must be ready – this will involve you learning new things!

I know orthopods and there is only so much relaxing we can take so, of course, this JTO covers research and academia too – particularly clinically relevant research via our research champions and Hunterian Professors. Andrew Price and colleagues would like us to remember ‘it’s all about the knee’ – the soft tissues anyway, if not the joint! I think it’s all about the kids – but perhaps that will be for a future edition!

2020-21 has seen us embrace ‘alternative’ media, so if reading the JTO cover to cover is more than your attention span can cope with, I suggest you have a look at the Transient Journal webpages (www.boa.ac.uk/T-JTO) where you will find podcasts on knitting and pieces on constructing dinosaurs; perhaps they are vying for inclusion in the indicative procedures section of our new curriculum? Or maybe not… maybe it’s just for fun and happiness and we are all in favour of that at the moment.

As we head into Spring, and the future looks brighter please remember –

“Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.”– Sally Koch

I hope you enjoy this JTO and if you have any ideas for future articles, please let me know.