American Thyroid Association’s 2017 Van Meter Award Lecture Delivered by Megan R. Haymart, MD
The ATA announced the Van Meter Award recipient
October 19, 2017—The American Thyroid Association (ATA) is pleased to announce that the 2017 Van Meter Award recipient is Megan R. Haymart, MD, 
Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The Van Meter Award recognizes outstanding contributions to research on the thyroid gland or related subjects by an investigator who is age 45 or under. At the ATA annual meeting in Victoria, British Columbia, Dr. Haymart will deliver the Van Meter Lecture at 8:05 am on October 19, 2017. Her lecture is titled “Implications of Diagnosing Low-Risk Thyroid Cancer.” The award winner is kept secret until the time of the lecture.
Dr. Haymart received her MD from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism at the University of Wisconsin.
Since joining the ATA in 2007, Dr. Haymart has donated a great deal of time and enthusiasm to the ATA, serving on the Public Health Committee (2010−12) and the Finance and Audit Committee (2012−18), which she now chairs. She participated in Strategic Planning for the ATA in 2012; and has attended every annual meeting since 2006. She serves on the editorial boards of Thyroid and Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM) and is an associate editor of VideoEndocrinology. She is currently a candidate for the ATA Board of Directors. In addition, she is a member of the Endocrine Society’s Annual Meeting Steering Committee.
In the eight years since she began her independent career at the University of Michigan, Dr. Haymart has earned a reputation as one of the national leaders in thyroid clinical research. She has recently secured two major research grants, one to study the role of patient and physician perceptions in treatment decision-making in thyroid cancer care, and the other to study incidental thyroid cancer discovery and strategies to minimize over-diagnosis and over-treatment. Both are critical issues for the field.
She has published many important papers in high-profile journals. Dr. Haymart’s CV lists 46 peer-reviewed publications, of which she is the first author of 17. These papers offer important new insights into thyroid cancer care and identify directions for future health services research.
Dr. Haymart’s expertise also is recognized by frequent invitations to speak at national conferences—including the 2009, 2013, and 2016 ATA annual meetings and the 2011 and 2016 Endocrine Society annual meetings—and to give presentations, such as those at the University of Wisconsin (2012, 2014), the Washington Hospital Center (2014), and Johns Hopkins (2016).
Dr. Haymart’s accomplishments, their impact on the field of thyroid cancer, and her contributions to thyroidology make her an ideal recipient of the Van Meter Award. The Van Meter is supported by an endowment gift from the estate of long-time member, Dr. Jacob Robbins; and by an annual contribution from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
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The American Thyroid Association (ATA) is the leading worldwide organization dedicated to the advancement, understanding, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of thyroid disorders and thyroid cancer. ATA is an international membership medical society with over 1,700 members from 43 countries around the world. Celebrating its 94th anniversary, the ATA continues to deliver its mission of being devoted to thyroid biology and to the prevention and treatment of thyroid disease through excellence in research, clinical care, education, and public health. These efforts are carried out via several key endeavors:
- The publication of the highly regarded professional journals Thyroid, Clinical Thyroidology, and VideoEndocrinology
- Annual scientific meetings
- Biennial clinical and research symposia
- Research grant programs for young investigators
- Support of online professional, public, and patient educational programs
- Development of guidelines for clinical management of thyroid disease and thyroid cancer
The ATA promotes thyroid awareness and information online through Clinical Thyroidology for the Public and extensive, authoritative explanations of thyroid disease and thyroid cancer in both English and Spanish. The ATA website serves as the clinical resource for patients and the public who look for reliable information on the Internet. Every fifth year, the American Thyroid Association joins with the Latin American Thyroid Society, the European Thyroid Association, and the Asia and Oceania Thyroid Association to cosponsor the International Thyroid Congress (ITC).
AMERICAN THYROID ASSOCIATION® , ATA® , THYROID® , CLINICAL THYROIDOLOGY® , and the distinctive circular logo are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as trademarks of the American Thyroid Association® , Inc.