Editor-in-chief, AAOS Now

Thank you for your overwhelming support and compliments on our first issue. Of course, we also heard from a few naysayers who weren’t as enthusiastic about the change, but we expected that as well. We just hope that our continued hard work and our efforts to bring you a full range of orthopaedic news stories will eventually win over those naysayers.

I was frequently asked one question: “What kind of publication is AAOS Now? Is it a paper reporting the news or is it a casual form of an orthopaedic journal? Or is it just a marketing piece for the Academy?”

AAOS Now is your AAOS member publication—just as the Bulletin had been. It’s in newspaper format, and we hope it is timely, exacting, exciting, factual, and unbiased. I am sure that some of our interviewees and some clinical presentations may put forth a specific point of view that is expressed in the article. That doesn’t mean that I—or the writer or anyone else—agrees with them, but if a controversial viewpoint is part of the news, we’re going to report it.

AAOS Now is not simply a mouthpiece for the Academy. It is not a scientific journal; it does not deal in peer review, results validation, or bibliographies. To the best of our ability, we will be reporting the news and bringing forth the issues that concern the orthopaedic community. You, as a reader, may not agree, and that is your right. Whether you agree or disagree, we’d like to hear from you.

We read everything

Everything readers submit to AAOS Now will be read by me and the managing editor, Mary Ann Porucznik. She will acknowledge receipt of every letter.

We will publish as many letters as possible. Ideally, published letters should be no more than 150 words so that we can accommodate many points of view. Marshal your thoughts and express them concisely. If we receive several letters on the same topic, we will try to print the two or three that best express what’s on the readers’ minds.

We on the editorial board of Now all wear “hard hats” and we can stand the heat or even the flak. So if you disagree with what we’ve written, or if you have a different opinion or believe something we have published is inaccurate, let us know, let us hear from you. That is why we’re calling our “letters to the editor” section “Setting Now Straight.” We want to know HOW things are different in your opinion, and we also want to know if we have made a mistake, however painful (OW!).

So let us hear from you. Feel free to “lob one over”—whether it’s a “Wow,” a “How,” or an “Ow!” Send your comments to Setting Now Straight, AAOS Now, 6300 N. River Rd., Rosemont, IL 60018, fax us at (847)823-8033, or e-mail us at aaoscomm@aaos.org