Dr. Mohit (Mo) Bhandari Selected as New JBJS Editor-in-Chief

The Board of Trustees of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery is happy to announce that Mohit (Mo) Bhandari, MD, PhD, FRCSC, has been selected as our new Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Bhandari will join JBJS on April 1, 2024, and officially take the reins from Marc Swiontkowski, MD, on June 1.  Jim Carpenter, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, notes, “On behalf of the entire Board of Trustees, I am thrilled that Dr. Bhandari has accepted the role of Editor-in-Chief. As a leading voice for evidence-based practice and high-quality research in musculoskeletal science internationally, he will carry on the long tradition at JBJS of excellence and leadership in fostering scientific publication.” 

Dr. Bhandari is universally recognized as a leading light in the field of evidence-based surgery and orthopaedic research, is one of the top-10 most-cited orthopaedic surgeons in the world, and has received Canada’s highest civilian honors—induction into the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada. Mo currently serves as Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at McMaster University, where he has been designated as a Distinguished University Professor (the highest honor that the University can bestow) and has received >50 awards for his work.  

Mo notes, “As a champion of scholarship, lifelong learning, and global collaboration, I will serve The Journal’s mission with dedication and respect to its 135-year history. We will face whatever tomorrow brings with optimism, agility, inclusivity, and above all, a culture of creativity. I am indebted to countless mentors, colleagues, and students who have shaped my career, with a personal note of gratitude to Professor Marc Swiontkowski, whose example I will carry in pursuit of maintaining The Journal’s global impact in musculoskeletal care.”  

Dr. Bhandari received his Master’s Degree in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from McMaster University, his PhD from Goteborg University in Sweden, and numerous certificates from such institutions as the MIT Sloan School of Management, Columbia Business School, the Wharton School, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Dr. Bhandari’s research focuses on the design and conduct of global clinical trials, methodological aspects of surgical research methodology, and the translation of evidence into surgical practice. He has >1,000 peer-reviewed scientific articles to his credit, with over 75 million dollars in research funding and 70,000 patients recruited into trials, and also has contributed to numerous textbooks, including the multi-volume Clinical Research for Surgeons and Evidence-Based Orthopaedics, among other publications. Dr. Bhandari is a past President of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association, the past Research Academy Chair for SICOT,  the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of OrthoEvidence, and a co-host of the OrthoJoe podcast (along with Dr. Swiontkowski).  

Dr. Swiontkowski has served as Editor-in-Chief of JBJS since 2014 and will join Drs. James Heckman and Vern Tolo as an Editor Emeritus. Jason Miller, the newly appointed CEO of JBJS, who spent 9 years working closely with Dr. Swiontkowski, notes that “I have worked with hundreds of Editors over the past 25 years, and not one possessed Marc’s unique combination of compassion for authors, editors, and reviewers along with an unflinching focus on the mission of improving patient care.” During his tenure, Marc carried on the proud tradition of his predecessors by leading the organization with an unwavering focus on excellence, adherence to the highest standards, an emphasis on evidence-based medicine, and the timely delivery of gold-standard orthopaedic content across all available platforms—all while consistently emphasizing that the patient is at the heart of everything that we do. Dr. Swiontkowski’s tenure has been marked by a number of important initiatives and milestones, including the launch of new journals (JBJS OA, JOPA) and article types (What’s Important, AOA Critical Issues in Education), an expansion of our educational offerings (Clinical Summaries, JBJS Clinical Classroom), a re-imagining of jbjs.org, and the embrace of technology and new approaches to audience engagement (infographics, video summaries, author insights videos, the OrthoJoe and Your Case Is On Hold podcasts, the OrthoBuzz blog, and the OrthoCorps audio archive). Under Marc’s stewardship, JBJS has continued to lead the orthopaedic community in upholding the highest standards of scientific integrity and has proactively addressed a variety of issues facing the orthopaedic community (e.g., fragility fractures, pain management, Covid-19, artificial intelligence, and the reporting of race, ethnicity, sex, and gender in scientific publications). Marc’s leadership, creativity, humility, humanity, sense of humor, and work ethic will be greatly missed, and the entire organization is greatly indebted to him for his outstanding service during a time of unprecedented change. 

At this exciting time in medical publishing, the Board is confident that Dr. Bhandari’s vision, creativity and wealth of experience will be instrumental in moving the organization forward into a new era of improving musculoskeletal care across the globe by delivering gold-standard scientific content and educational resources that will benefit readers, authors, clinicians, medical students, and patients alike.