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American Thyroid Association Improves Award-winning Website
(FALLS CHURCH, VA)—The American Thyroid Association (ATA) further improves its award winning website, www.thyroid.org, to fulfill a commitment to inform the public about thyroid disease. The structural database that the site resides on was upgraded to improve the ease of finding important thyroid health information online. Navigational elements were also improved for more user-friendly access to the growing amount of online resources for professionals and the public available on the ATA site.
“With over 1.5 million visits per year, our web site is the authoritative source of thyroid information for patients and professionals,” said Gregory Brent, MD, secretary and chief operating officer of the ATA. “The content is developed and maintained by the top thyroid physicians and scientists in the United States and around the world. The new design will make this information even more accessible.”
The ATA web site provides valuable resources for health professionals, such as treatment guidelines and online governance materials for ATA members. The ATA also has future plans to expand its online physician education. Patient education materials are available to patients and the public, such as thyroid health patient education brochures in English and Spanish. An e-news service for patients has over 4700 subscribers, called ‘Friends of the ATA’, who receive news of the latest in thyroid health information.
A web consultant and Intertwine Systems of Baltimore worked closely with the ATA to redesign and re-launch the website. “The new layout of the home page content and better indices detailing the sections dedicated to professionals, public/patients and publications/media allow for streamlined navigability,” said Barbara Smith, CAE, executive director of the ATA. Each page has a print and email function to make this information easier to send to others interested or concerned about thyroid disease. Member services pages have also been expanded to provide more information important to the ATA member, including a searchable online directory.
A new section has been added to the left hand column of the home page that links patients and professionals with three specialized ATA web sites. A first-of-its-kind website, www.thyroidtrials.org, is dedicated to providing listings and information on all current thyroid clinical trials. The Thyroid Cancer Roadmap web site (www.thyroidcancerroadmap.org) provides information about new developments in basic, translational, and clinical research regarding the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid cancer for professionals and patients. The ATA web site also provides a link to the Thyroid Pharmacovigilance web site www.thyroidpharmacovigilance.org) to collect information about possible adverse events or product availability problems related to thyroid hormone medications from physicians and other health care providers.
The ATA is the recipient of the 2004 Aesculapius Award, given by the nonprofit Health Improvement Institute (HII) to recognize the quality content on www.thyroid.org.
The American Thyroid Association is a nonprofit professional medical society composed of physicians and scientists dedicated to enhancing the understanding of thyroid physiology and pathophysiology, improving diagnosis and treatment of thyroid diseases, and promoting the education of physicians, patients, and the public about thyroid disorders.
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