In this year's BASEM issue of BJSM we are reflecting back and looking forward; reflecting back on our 2012 congress and looking forward organisationally and educationally.

Reflecting back…

After a couple of challenging years, we were pleased that our 2012 congress received such good feedback from the delegates. One area which we were particularly glad to see so strongly represented were submissions for both the BASEM/Institute of SEM Prize for Sport and Exercise Medicine and the Tom Donaldson Poster Prize for Students. We displayed posters from across the breadth of research in sport and exercise medicine, and included in this issue are the abstracts from four of the prize winners (see page 1133). It was particularly good to see exercise medicine so well represented in the posters.

We need to talk about pain…

On the second day, we held a session on ‘Pain and the Athlete’ encompassing both acute and persisting pain. Though it is the primary problem of most of our athletes, our understanding of the pain physiology in this unique group of individuals is not always what it needs to be. In particular, abnormal persisting pain processing mechanisms in elite athletes are more common than we might expect and we need to actively search them out. To this end pain is one of the two ‘mini themes’ in this issue with articles on thoracic outlet syndrome and the neuroanatomical basis of shoulder pain (see pages 1080 and 1095). In addition, we have part of a review on the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) originally published in the BMJ (see page 1127). The full text is available online and is well worth checking out for some useful tips on selection of NSAIDs and the reduction of complications when prescribing.

When did you last see a wrist injury…?

The second mini theme is wrist injuries. While the procession of knees, ankles, hips, shoulders and spines is pretty steady through most general sports injury clinics, the distal end of the upper limb often does not get much of a look in. In this issue we have papers on return to play after surgery for scapholunate injuries (see page 1071), wrist injuries in golf (see page 1075), and all you wanted to know about Guyon's canal and extensor carpi ulnaris pathology (see page 1063). So, for those of you not working with upper limb sports (as well as those that do), I hope you find these articles a useful update.

Looking forward…

This year we are looking forward to a brighter and more secure future for BASEM but with lessons from the past firmly in mind. Financially we are back on steady ground which will give us the opportunity to advance as an organisation, but with clear governance strategies in place to avoid repeating previous mistakes. Potential areas for expansion include reinstating the Spring Meeting and enhancing the website including the development of online educational material.

This year's challenge…

Last year I asked you, ‘What are you going to do differently next week?’ I tasked us with taking one article and implementing a change in clinical practice. This year I have a different challenge and that is to go online to check out BJSM's web based resources. If you have not been there recently, you may be surprised; you could sign up to the twitter feed highlighting the latest research, read the blogs or view the podcasts. If you're not feeling quite ready to embrace the full social media scene then there are all sorts of other educational resources such as quizzes, exercise prescription videos, an Achilles tendinopathy toolkit and even powerpoint slides that you can use to supplement your own presentations. In addition there are a number of online resources that link specifically to this edition including multiple choice questions on review papers (a great way of demonstrating learning for continuing professional development) and a video on wrist examination.

So, venture forth, in print and in cyberspace!