Kristen,

I just finished reading the January issue of Impact magazine. I want to congratulate you on the next evolutionary step in creating value for today’s private practice owner. It looks fresh and up to date, it feels nice to hold and thumb through (not a trivial thing!). I enjoy seeing the “action tip” alerts. Whenever I see an article that spurs my creative energy, I tear it out to transfer into my journal/planner. I think the best compliment I can give you is that I have torn out 8 pages from the January issue. Well done and keep it up!

Steve Rapposelli
PT Performance Physical Therapy and Fitness

Dear Steve,

Many thanks for your kind words. The credit is due to our remarkable editorial board who is continually working to provide the best content for our section. Your compliment is very meaningful to all of us!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts,
Kristen

Dear Editor,

I noticed the designation of the asterisk on certain contributors’ names as being professionally affiliated with the topic. Could you explain this designation? It seems unfair that people are singled out as having a professional affiliation even though the topic they are writing about isn’t related to their industry. Why do we need this in the magazine? Don’t you think we can all decide for ourselves how to interpret an article?

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

The topic you pose is one that has been discussed at length over the past several years on the editorial board, and you’re right, it is a rather convoluted issue. In the past, in an effort to protect our readers from authors who wanted to use Impact as a sounding board to gain clients or to promote their services, the board felt it necessary to designate their affiliation with a special notation on their names. The effort was meant to protect our readers from solicitation and keep the intent of the articles focused on highquality content. Needless to say, the board still strongly believes in both of those ideals—anti-solicitation and quality content—however, given our new mission as well as our ongoing commitment to provide an unbiased resource for our readers, I agree that the designation may be outdated. Therefore, effective in this issue, May 2021, we will no longer designate authors as having a professional affiliation with a topic. At the end of each article, each author will have a byline that shares where they work and any affiliations they may have. We will leave the responsibility to our readers to understand these affiliations and any effect it may have on the content. Despite this change, please know our board will always prevent undesignated solicitation and self-promotion in all of our articles in order to keep our magazine content-focused.

Many thanks for your inquiry,
Kristen