Secretary's Update, January 2014

John C. Morris, M.D. ATA Secretary/ Chief Operating Officer

Dear Colleagues,

Happy 2014! We are beginning a busy and exciting new year for ATA and I am delighted to provide some updates and announcements for you.

This year, in lieu of a spring symposium, we will be holding a satellite meeting prior to the International Congress of Endocrinology/Endocrine Society's annual meeting in Chicago, on Friday, June 20. Entitled "2014 American Thyroid Association (ATA) Guidelines on Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer — Highlights, Controversies and Consensus" this half-day, afternoon symposium will be a roll-out of the updated ATA Thyroid Nodules and Thyroid Cancer guidelines. ATA Past President, Bryan Haugen, who also chairs the guidelines task force, will serve as program chair and his task force members will be speakers at the session. The presentations will highlight areas of the guidelines that are being updated and are changing significantly from prior versions, including the new evidence that has influenced those changes. The meeting will be held in the convention center in the same space as ICE/Endo Society meeting, which begins the following morning. Registration for our symposium can be completed as part of your ICE/ES meeting registration. ATA members can use the meeting code ATAMEM (ATA member trainees should use code ATATRN) to receive a discounted registration fee. This promises to be an exciting and informative afternoon and an opportunity to hear about these most visible of our guidelines from the ATA members who wrote them. Please save this date on your calendars and include it in your trip and travel plans for June. For more information and registration click here.

Preparation for the 84th Annual Meeting is well underway. Start your planning now to be with us at the historic and beautiful Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego October 29 - November 2 for this event. The chairs of the program committee, Mike Tuttle and Fred Wondisford, invite your suggestions for session topics as they begin the hard work of assembling the scientific program for another outstanding conference. Please spend a few minutes thinking about your needs and interests and send the committee your proposals.

The first issue of our new publication, VideoEndocrinology (VE), is expected later this first quarter of 2014. Editor Jerry Doherty and Managing Editor Vicki Cohn from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (MAL) are moving forward rapidly towards completing this landmark issue. You will receive notification of its publication much the same as you do for THYROID and Clinical Thyroidology (CT) and, of course, subscription fees for VE are included with your ATA membership. The transition of CT to publication by MAL is also moving forward successfully. CT editor Jerry Hershman and his editorial board, who produce this outstanding summary publication, will now be included in a subscription bundle with THYROID and VE.

As part of the overall changes in our publication structure, and at the suggestion of Editor Alan Farwell, to increase interest in it by non-ATA member providers, we have changed the name of Clinical Thyroidology for Patients (CTFP). The new name Clinical Thyroidology for the Public, ingeniously, can still be referred to as "CTFP". Thanks to Alan and the editorial board of CTFP for their efforts to translate the important Thyroid-related science from CT into layman's language for our patients and the public.

Hopefully, you have seen already the newest of our guidelines, "American Thyroid Association Guide to Investigating Thyroid Hormone Economy and Action in Rodent and Cell Models" which is now available in hard-copy in the January issue of THRYOID. If you have not, I invite you to pick up the journal or download the paper, for which Tony Bianco served as task force chair. At 80 pages in length, you will find it to be a tour-de-force for thyroid hormone research. The accompanying editorial from Past President, Greg Brent, outlines the importance of this landmark document in informing investigators and standardizing techniques as well as providing a reference for readers of the techniques and models utilized by researchers.

The draft document from the task force on thyroid hormone replacement is posted on the ATA website for member review and commentary. Entitled "Guidelines For The Treatment Of Hypothyroidism ", we anticipate completion and publication of this important update later this year. Thanks to Jacquie Jonklaas and Tony Bianco for leading this taskforce and to all the members for their efforts. You will be hearing much more about this document as it nears completion, publication, and roll-out. For now, please spend some time reading the draft and forward commentary to the task force using the website link.

Later this year we anticipate the completion and publication of the new Pediatric Thyroid Cancer guidelines, chaired by Gary Francis, and the update of the Medullary Thyroid Cancer guidelines, chaired by Sam Wells. A period of member commentary will also be provided for each of these when the task force working on them brings them forward. Thanks to the members who are hard at work on these documents.

Finally, I want to express my thanks and appreciation to Bobbi Smith, our never-tiring Executive Director for her 18 years of dedication and service among us. In my view, Bobbi is the heart and much of the personality of our organization and is clearly the glue that makes it all hang together. Under her guidance, we have grown in size and scope and in many directions that have invigorated and strengthened us. She leads a highly effective and responsive office staff that support and enact all the things we are and do, every day. I am pleased to announce that the ATA board of directors has recently renewed and extended Bobbi's contract for another 5 years. Thank you Bobbi!

John C. Morris, MD
Secretary/Chief Operating Officer