The 88th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) is almost here!! On behalf of the program committee, we look forward to welcoming you and your guests to our ATA annual meeting to be held October 3-7, 2018 at the Marriott Marquis Washington DC. This year the program committee, comprised of experts of all thyroid disciplines, has worked tirelessly to develop a program featuring the latest advances in basic/ translational and clinical thyroidology (www.thyroid.org). Meeting registration is on track to generate the highest attendance we have ever had for an ATA meeting. Washington, DC is a world-class destination with many stellar cultural, musical and museum attractions (within walking distance of the headquarters’ hotel) available to attendees and their families.
New Programs This Year
This year the program will feature a wide variety of primary lectures, symposia and discussion-debates/meet the professor workshops that have been highly rated in the past along with several new sessions we hope to be of great interest. The first is the very first ATA international symposium – the ATA Latin American Satellite Symposium from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM on Wednesday, October 3. This will represent a gathering of Latin American and ATA leaders allowing for true international interaction, networking, collaboration, the renewal of old and hopefully the development of new friendships. The international representation of the annual meeting is reflected by the over 543 abstracts submitted representing more than 38 countries.
The other new addition to the 2018 program is the 1st Annual Advanced Practice Providers (APP) Satellite Symposium from 1:00 to 6:00 PM on Saturday, October 6. This symposium reflects the growing membership within the ATA of advanced practice providers. Reflecting this, the APP symposium will bring together the spectrum of healthcare professionals comprising the clinical “thyroid team”; focusing on all aspects of clinical management of thyroid disease, including nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, advanced degree nurses and physician assistants.
Opening Day
Of interest in our pre-meeting programming is the ATA Endocrine Neck Advanced Ultrasound Course co-chaired by Kevin Brumund and Susan Mandel on Wednesday, October 3 and the E. Chester Ridgway Trainee Conference, an extensive clinical and basic training program co-chaired by Jacqueline Kung and Jennifer Sipos (for both these pre-congress programs preregistration is required, and seating is limited). On the evening of October 3, the annual meeting will kick off with our traditional Year in Thyroidology review featuring three leaders to discuss and interpret the top recent literature published in basic, clinical and surgical thyroidology. Christine Spitzweg, Virginia Sarapura, and Amy Chen will present summaries of the most notable studies in each of their respective fields. This remains a highly anticipated opening session and will be followed by the
This year, we have two distinguished speakers who will be presenting timely and novel plenary lectures: Dr. Kevin Harold from Yale University speaking on The Role of the Microbiome in Thyroid Autoimmunity and Dr. Timothy Chan from MSKCC discussing Antitumor Immunology and Immune therapies for Advanced Thyroid Cancer. Notable symposia include: Clinical Symposium: Iodine and Health, chaired by Elizabeth Pearce with speakers Jonathan Gorstein, Sarah C. Bath and Angela M. Leung; Basic Symposium: Genetic Landscapes on Advanced Thyroid Cancers chaired by Laura Boucai, with speakers Mingzhao Xing, Matthew D. Ringel and James A. Fagin. The highly anticipated Arthur Bauman Clinical Symposium will focus on cytologically indeterminate thyroid nodules and the role (and controversies) of molecular markers in their management strategies.
Awards remain an important part of the meeting, with recognitions being held for the following:
- The ATA will announce the recipient of the Van Meter Award on Thursday, October 4th in recognition of outstanding contributions to thyroid research.
- Scott A. Rivkees is the recipient of the Paul Starr Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to clinical thyroidology, and will present Unmasking the Problems with Anti-Thyroid Medication Safety.
- The ATA Distinguished Service Award will be presented to David H. Sarne for his outstanding contributions to the society.
- The John B. Stanbury Thyroid Pathophysiology Medal will be awarded to Marvin C. Gershengorn.
- The Clark T. Sawin Historical Presentation on the Treatment of Hypothyroidism – from Animal Extracts to Current Controversies will be moderated by Peter Kopp, with panelists to include John Morris, Valerie Anne Galton, Jacqueline Jonklaas and Stephen LaFranchi.
- The Sidney H. Ingbar Distinguished Awardee, an established investigator who has made major contributions to thyroid-related research over many years, is Anthony Hollenberg who will speak on New Insights into Thyroid Hormone Action.
- The Lewis E. Braverman Distinguished Lectureship Award established in 2011 to recognize an individual who has demonstrated excellence and passion for mentoring fellows, students and junior faculty is being presented by R. Michael Tuttle on Common Clinical Thyroid Cancer Questions in Need of Better Answers.
Based on the success of last year’s meeting, we are pleased to again offer the ATA Pediatric Thyroid Forum Satellite Symposium – Current state and Future Directions, co-chaired by Andrew Bauer and Catherine Dinauer taking place Saturday, October 6.
Mainstays of the Annual meeting, Discussion-Debates/Meet The Professor Workshops have shown high registration numbers thus far, including Locally Advanced Thyroid Cancer in the Era of TKIs, Endocrine and Nuclear Medicine – Controversies, Consensus and Collaboration in the use of RAI therapy in DTC, Understanding of Thyroid Pathology and Cytology for Endocrinologists and Surgeons, Thyroid Disease and Pregnancy, Medullary Thyroid Cancer – Updates on Detection, Management and Postoperative follow-up, RET translational symposium – 25 year anniversary of RET and Precision Medicine in Thyroid Cancer 2018.
Surgical programming
The surgical component of this year’s annual meeting will be strong with participation of our many surgeon members representing numerous thyroid surgical societies. Sessions of interest to surgeons include the Role of molecular markers and evaluation of thyroid nodules chaired by Jennifer Sipos, a session on Medullary Thyroid Cancer chaired by Rich Wong, a session on Patient Reported Outcomes in Thyroid Cancer Treatment chaired by Megan Haymart and Jeffrey Garber and a special Surgical Symposium on Multidisciplinary Management of Graves’ Disease 2018 chaired by Rosemary Metzger as well as a Thyroid Cancer Tumor Board session chaired by Catherine Sinclair and a session on Locally Advanced Thyroid Cancer Management in the Era of TKIs moderated by Wendy Sacks. We will again have a VideoEndocrinology session on Risk stratification of thyroid cancer chaired by William Barry Inabnet and David Terris.
ATA Governance and Constituency-building
The ATA annual meeting is a great time to work for the ATA within its committee structure and to get time to engage directly with colleagues and trainees over a poster or by discussion of an oral abstract presentation. Meet presenters and attendees with backgrounds in basic and clinical thyroid research, general endocrinology, otolaryngology, endocrine surgery, pediatric endocrinology, medical oncology, nuclear medicine, laboratory sciences, industry, pathology, cytology, advanced practice providers and allied health disciplines. Meet with pharmaceutical, device and technology sponsors and our patient support groups at the 2018 ATA Thyroid EXPO. ATA committee meetings will be held Wednesday, October 3, the Women in Thyroidology Networking Reception also Wednesday, October 3 the annual ATA Business Meeting will be held Thursday, October 4.
CME and MOC credits available
This year through meeting attendance one may earn a maximum of 23.50 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ and in addition through a new Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program attendees may earn up to 23.50 medical knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine MOC program through their program and activity reporting system and ACCME.
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