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I was reminded recently about my very first MSKMag editorial which I titled ‘A Huge Backward Step’ because that was the instinctive reaction of many when we suggested using written words rather than spoken ones for CPD. This summer we ticked over the one million views mark for MSKMag so I’m overdue a smug ‘I told you so’ moment where I swagger around explaining how I came to such a visionary idea…

Firstly, it’s a blog that we print. Please temper your praise. But also the better reaction is ‘Why didn’t you do it sooner?!’ Why did this non-innovative innovation emerge ten years after The Physio Matters Podcast, five years after MSKReform and three years after Therapy Live? I think a decent part of the answer is that culturally we’re so used to chasing technological progress that I assumed the next Physio Matters media project would leverage a new medium. But fortunately I’m so uncool, I’m anti-cool. So teaching neuro assessments as a TikTok dance and sharing taping techniques as a mosaic on Instagram were off the table and instead we tried publishing clinical, commercial and professional issues in text form to see if you liked that too. Fortunately you did and one million MSKMag views took a few years less time than one million podcast downloads!

But I’m left grappling with ‘progress’ a lot at the moment. Whilst I loathe the blind retention of the status quo as much as ever, I’m confronted with the increasingly obvious errors that have occurred clinically and culturally from ill-considered reforms. I’ll leave the ‘cultural’ ones for another time and another place because my political ranting will be even spicier than that sausage article from a few issues back... But clinically, some examples. Because folk were unjustifiably claiming to feel the relative stiffness of L4 on L5, we then stopped pressing on people’s backs from time to time. Because folk were unjustifiably claiming to feel the melting of adhesions under their forearms, we stopped attending to our feel and dexterity when handling patients. I dread to think if someone investigated the plummeting specificity and sensitivity of the Lachmann test in a generation who now dismiss every tactile sensation as pareidolia.

Maybe I’m projecting a bit here. Maybe some of this is on me and mine? Or as the kids might say ‘dis is all cope bruv’... I think I went in a bit hard at times over the years trying to provoke some change and perhaps it was naive of me to think that the best ideas would triumph, rather than simply the loudest or trendiest? One ‘ill-considered reform’ that is attributed to me - and that I partially regret - is CPD going SO online. I used to love hearing from hundreds of therapists telling me how our podcast and Twitter feed had saved them thousands on courses and conferences that used to teach them useless techniques and antiquated reasoning models. But instead of those level-one-to-five courses shaping up and improving, did they get pushed so far to the fringe that the practical skills they taught by accident got lost for a while? Did learning to win an inter-professional argument about styles of practice get mistaken for clinical expertise and superior outcomes? Questions I’m still pondering.

But for now, I’m tickled by my own title because video didn’t kill the MSK radio star as our hundreds of hours of webinar content only fuels the popularity of our legacy audio over on The Physio Matters Podcast feed and here you are reading the supposedly archaic written word. So here’s a promise of progress to you all as I plan some of our boldest plans yet; 2026 will see the most precise and calculated CPD innovations and we will seek to resolve some of the errors that we have witnessed and perhaps even contributed to. Some teasers:

* The Best Practice Series - TPMP Audio Resurgence.

* Hybrid Conferences and courses - The Online and In-Person sweet spot

* Physio Matters Next Steps - The antidote to MSK graduate under-education

* Physio Mappers - The Ultimate Referral Directory

* TikTok Neuro Screen Dance Party

OK. One of the above may be fake news… But I’ll tell you what isn’t fake news, the news of how brilliant this month’s MSKMag is. (Yes, I am aware that I’m getting worse at these transitions…) The star of the show is the mighty Val Jones whose brilliant biceps rupture piece is open access to help boost her fundraiser. Go read my intro and the piece for more info. Tom Jesson once again demonstrates that his writing always transcends the topic’s title. His piece is about metastatic spinal cord compression but the learning goes way beyond the condition. Rob Beaven spent a day on his clinic reception which inspired some excellent reflections on professional identity, competency and patient perception. Sue Julians is at her exposing best with ‘Does Physio Have a Future’. Musings on AI, health coaching, professional bodies and much more. Mike James is rightly lauded as an exceptional thinker on all things MSK but his most specialist subject is the management of endurance athletes. His ‘Beyond Biomechanics’ piece is an absolute belter and is essential in the Ironman era. And finally, our resident rant merchant is back; Glen O’Humeral turns his scorn on the medics this month. One day we might even release the unedited first draft… and by one day I mean the day we fancy getting cancelled for good.

Until then, this radio star will keep waiting for his demise and you lot can keep your eyes peeled for some damn exciting (but surprisingly tactful) innovations coming soon.

Jack Chew

Editor In Chief