Gwen Jull

Musculoskeletal therapy and global challenges

Welcome to this issue of Manual Therapy Journal. This last year has seen an unprecedented series of disasters such as earthquakes, floods and droughts, affecting large populations around the world. Our thoughts and commiserations go out to all our readers and their families, friends and colleagues who may have been personally affected by one of these major disasters, and particularly those in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and more lately, America. We wish everyone who has been affected a speedy return to normality and offer our sincere condolences to those of you who may have lost loved ones during these very challenging times. We know that many of our colleagues across the world will have been, or are involved in rehabilitation of individuals injured during these disasters and we praise their fortitude, stamina and ingenuity in dealing with patient care under such difficult circumstances. On a lighter note, a request went out to a reviewer for one our Manual Therapy papers at the time of the Australian floods and a calm response came back saying “I am unable to review at this time as I am evacuating my house today as it is in the flood zone, but will carry out the review when I return”. Such an incredible, calm commitment this showed, it was really unbelievable. As we are all aware, another challenge we all face now is the downturn in the global economy. For many nations, their health service constitutes one of the largest economic investments and therefore in a time of economic hardship this would seem a good place to trim budgets and cut costs. This can have implications for all health care services andmusculoskeletal care is no exception, with the possibility of cuts in staffing, support services and resources including training budgets. The expectation, of course, will bemore for less, whilst also expecting quality to bemaintained.