The overall purpose of health care is to maintain health—to prevent and to treat disorders effectively to secure the greatest possible gain in health. Education is an important means of achieving this. In this issue of the Annals is the first of a series of articles on education, each focusing on different aspects that will result in the improvement of outcome of those with musculoskeletal conditions.

Any strategy that is aimed at influencing health must be based on evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness, but also it must be effectively implemented. Implementation requires compliance by the public and patients, in addition to priority and funding. Patients must have faith and confidence based on knowledge. This is especially important with chronic disorders that cannot be cured, are often progressive and, at most points of their natural history, have an effect on a person's quality of life. The enormous expenditure on alternative and complementary treatments testifies to our inability to meet the expectations of the public and to what lengths they will go to try to achieve their desired goals. This gap between what is desired to be achieved and what can be achieved needs to be closed by better treatments developed by research. However, the gap can more rapidly be narrowed by the better application of existing treatments and by more realistic expectations by patients and public. The more the public drives the provision of care, the more it chases the ideal and not the realistic. Public pressure is important to prevent complacency, but it must be balanced against …