President's Update, December 2016

John C. Morris, M.D. ATA President

Happy Holidays from ATA!

As a great way of kicking off the New Year, we have just learned that the updated Thyroid and Pregnancy guidelines have been accepted for publication and expect that they will be published in THYROID in the March issue. Congratulations and thanks to co-chairs Elizabeth Pearce and Erik Alexander and to all members of this guidelines task force for their tremendous effort. I hope everyone reading this realizes the huge amount of work that is required to bring a project of this magnitude to completion. Clearly the product here is worth the cost, as these guidelines will join the most recently completed Hyperthyroidism Guidelines and their existing companions on other thyroid topics as the gold-standards for diagnosis and management of thyroid disorders and dysfunction in pregnancy.

Development of guidelines is a key element in improving the care of patients with thyroid disorders and one of the most important efforts of our organization. But guidelines produced in a vacuum are ineffectual. Distribution and implementation of the recommendations in our guidelines are critical elements of the effectiveness of ATA's influence.

Towards this end, the ATA has engaged with pocket guide partner GuidelineCentral since 2015 to provide our expert, peer-reviewed thyroid guidelines in a succinct pocket card format for the endocrine-thyroid specialist. The pocket cards are available in print and digital format and to-date, there are 11 pocket card titles available:

• Hypothyroidism
• Hyperthyroidism
• Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
• Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
• Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma
• Pediatric Thyroid Nodules and Differentiated Thyroid Cancer
• Recurrent/Persistent Nodal Disease
• Perioperative Imaging Guide
• Medullary Thyroid Cancer
• Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer
• ATA Thyroid Bundle (all titles in-one)

The printed pocket guides have been well-received at the ATA annual meetings since the first year of circulation in 2015. In collaboration with GuidelineCentral, we have distributed hundreds of copies of various titles of the guides to both domestic and international meeting attendees who have visited the ATA Exhibit Booths at ATA meetings and also, at our sister society meetings where the ATA attends as an exhibitor. The pocket cards have also been provided to key constituents such as endocrine and metabolism program directors (APDEM) who meet each year at the Endocrine Society annual meeting.

To-date, there have been sales of over 1,400 copies of the pocket guides (digital and print combined) and we will continue to highlight this excellent resource among ATA members and the full thyroid community. GuidelineCentral also works diligently to identify and market the pocket cards to key industry representatives who would benefit from incorporating the guides within their medical and sales teams and they have had some success in this route of engagement. Since June 2016, there have been 97,000 page views on the GuidelineCentral site for ATA titles and the average amount of time per visit was 5 minutes and 50 seconds.

On the horizon…once the Thyroid Pregnancy Guidelines are published, we will add this to the ATA portfolio of pocket card titles and we will work to share availability within ATA and also extend to OBGYN, pediatric, and family practice constituents.

Additionally, we plan to provide a Spanish translation of the Hypothyroidism guidelines that will be digitized in flip-book format early in 2017 and will promote this to our international sister societies such as the Latin American Thyroid Society (LATS.)

Overall, the guideline pocket cards have been a successful initiative that reinforces implementation of ATA guidelines in a consolidated, easy access format. Our partnership with GuidelineCentral is key, and their team, led by Chris Wise, is knowledgeable, swift, and provides ease in collaboration. We also extend our appreciation to our guidelines Chairs who are key to review and provide final approval on the guides before they are published. Many members of our ATA staff have also worked diligently on this project, including Kelly Hoff who has been the leader of the effort. Thanks to all!

We encourage you to preview and spread the word about the guides online via the following link on the ATA website: http://www.thyroid.org/professionals/ata-professional-guidelines/practice-guidelines-pocketcards/

Should you decide to pursue the guides in digital format, they are easy to access via the GuidelineCentral mobile app: https://www.guidelinecentral.com/solutions/mobile-and-web-apps/

I will finish this final Signal message of the year with a reminder of the upcoming Spring Symposium, "Hypothyroidism – Where Are We Now?". This half-day meeting, which is co-chaired by Jacquie Jonklaas and Antonio Bianco, will be presented on Friday afternoon in Orlando as an on site satellite of the Endocrine Society Annual Meeting. It promises relevant and updated new information on this fast-changing and all-important topic, the most common of thyroid function disorders. You can see the terrific agenda on our website here http://www.thyroid.org/2017-hypo-symposium/ and register for it through the Endocrine Society https://www.endocrine.org/endo-2017.

In closing I would like to announce that the work of the ATA has been recognized by the association industry's American Society of Association Executives with a "Power of A" Silver Award for serving patients and their families as well as the physicians who treat them by creating expert, evidence-based clinical guidelines for the treatment of thyroid conditions such as Hypothyroidism, Hyperthyroidism, and various forms of Thyroid Cancer.

2016 has been a terrific year for ATA and 2017 is shaping up to be even more exciting and eventful. Thanks to all of you for your support and contributions to ATA, past and future. Happy New Year!

John C. Morris, III, M.D.
President, American Thyroid Association