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Greetings and Happy New Year from my new role as Editor in Chief of MSKMag! Admittedly it looks a great deal like my previous role of Editor Adjacent to Chief of MSKMag, only with the added responsibility of penning this Editorial every month.

Of course with such great power comes great editorial responsibility (to borrow and slightly tweak one of our titles this month), and so if you have any feedback about MSKMag, or things you’d like to see more of, please do get in touch on [email protected].

My predecessor Jack Chew gave me this advice for coming up with trending MSK issues for the Editorial: get LinkedIn. Now forgive me for writing this in December whilst clinging to my Christmas jumper and mulled wine and putting LinkedIn firmly in my January to-do list. Tis not the season. By the time you read this though, look me up! I’ll be the new person without any friends.

The social media platform I’m found on mostly is Instagram and the trend stuck in my head and probably yours for the past several weeks comes with the soundtrack of Billy Joel’s lyrics from Piano Man ‘...and probably will be for life’ merging into a Fleetwood Mac song whilst a video montage plays, overlaid with the captions: ‘In your 20s…[a thing will present itself]. It is very important you [do/do not engage with/marry/get on board this thing]…’

Now who doesn’t love a self-reflective social media trend this time of year? You’ll have to sing the backing music yourself (if you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times) but here’s MSKMag’s January issue version:

In your early career, colleagues will tell you studying Ergonomics at Masters level will be boring. It is very important you do not listen to them. The result is Liz Prokopowicz’s article ‘The Human Factor’.

In your life, you will tell yourself that you fully intend to do all of the things including the home exercise programme and that new business venture. It is very important that you do not believe yourself until you’ve set up a framework to success. You can read about that framework in Nicola Graham’s ‘The Road to Failure is Paved with Good Intentions’.

In your clinic, you will see people with tendinopathy in whom you also really really suspect something else inflammatory is going on. It is very important you don’t ignore that instinct. Instead, read Jack March’s ‘Rheumatology and Tendons: Certainly No SpA Day’.

In treating hypermobility in your patients, you will start to notice certain trends among some of those who are neurodiverse. It is very important you allow these patients to feel seen. You can learn to do the same in Sue Julian’s article ‘Should we treat neurodivergent patients differently’.

In your practice you will be tempted to treat everyone you see using spinal manipulations ‘because chiropractic’. It is very important you listen to your grandad’s advice when this happens. Read about this advice and his own in Glenn Winslade’s ‘With Great Power Comes Great Chiropractic Responsibility’.

And, in your reading of MSKMag, you’ll occasionally disagree, often learn something new, and hopefully feel part of a bigger conversation. It is very important you keep joining in. Largely because it’s far less fun if I’m talking to myself. Here’s to the conversations we’ll spark in 2026.

Felicity Thow

Editor in Chief