A farewell from the outgoing Editor

Dear colleagues and friends, this is my last issue as Editor of the MDS newsletter. As my term is coming to an end, I wanted to reflect on my time here at the helm of Moving Along. First, I would like to congratulate Dr. Katarzyna Śmilowska who will be taking over the role of Editor in January 2025. Dr. Śmilowska has been a very active member of our Editorial Board for the past three years, and as an emerging young leader, I am eager to see how she will build onto the growth and history of Moving Along. I have no doubt, she will be do an amazing job.

During my tenure, I shared this exciting journey with exceptional Editorial Board Members who have contributed tremendously to the success of Moving Along. Everything we have accomplished could not have been possible without their positive energy and relentless enthusiasm. Together, we have emphasized scientific contents in addition to Society features. In each issue, we highlight key findings from across the field.

Importantly, we also updated the format of the publication from a PDF to fully digital issues. Not only did this make the articles easier to access and read, it has also opened up new possibilities to share and promote them across MDS channels, on social media, and via search platforms. I believe this has allowed Moving Along to become a more dynamic resource for the movement disorders community.

As a result, we have seen strong markers of success:

A majority of the digital articles have doubled or even tripled the prior average readership of full issues.
Relevant articles remain accessible beyond their publication date. As an example, the piece “The MDS Criteria for the Diagnosis of Multiple System Atrophy” alone has been viewed more than 8,500 times since being released more than two years ago. More than 500 of those views have been just within the last month.
Since the switch, the newsletter content has drawn 40,000+ unique users, many from search engines – proving it has valuable reach far beyond the MDS Membership.

This also gave us a much more comprehensive look at what people are reading – which confirmed that our focus on scientific content was well received. The top articles are consistently commentaries on scientific advancements. Other high-performing content include features that profile specific people or organizations, and articles that provide context to disparities and barriers worldwide.

Of course, none of this could have been possible without the continued support of the Officers and MDS Staff, and on this regard, I would like to acknowledge in particular the Assistant Director of Communications, Shea Higgins, for the tremendous help and administrative oversight she has provided throughout this time.