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Elizabeth N. Pearce, MD, MSc
President, American Thyroid Association |
President's Update
February 2019
Greetings! There are a number of exciting new ATA initiatives and collaborations with sister societies from the U.S. and around the world to report on this month.
Two upcoming meetings are intended to foster new international partnerships, in line with our strategic goal of promoting the visibility of the ATA as the global leader in thyroid health. On May 17-19 there will be a joint ATA/Indian Thyroid Society meeting held in Bangalore, India which will include lectures from several ATA faculty; thanks to Joel Ehrenkranz for facilitating the program development. On June 22, just before the Latin American Thyroid Society (LATS) XVII annual meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the ATA will host a satellite symposium titled American Thyroid Association (ATA) Guidelines: From Development to Deployment which will feature several ATA speakers discussing the most important changes advocated by our most recent (and upcoming) clinical guidelines as well as our updated process for guidelines development. Thanks to Gabriela Brenta, LATS president, and Ana Luiza Maia, program chair, for facilitating our involvement with LATS.
Closer to home, don't forget that here is still time to register for the spring satellite meeting. This symposium, co-chaired by Jennifer Sipos and Ralph Tufano, is titled Diagnostic Imaging and Image-Guided Therapies for Thyroid Disease. It will take place on Friday, March 22 in New Orleans, just before the Endocrine Society meeting.
Starting last year with a meeting in Martinique, members of the ATA, the European Association of Nuclear Medicine, the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, and the European Thyroid Association have been working to address some of the controversies and differences in opinion associated with the use of I-131 therapy in differentiated thyroid cancer patients. This work will be continued with another meeting this month. Look for the upcoming publication in Thyroid® of a joint statement, and for related sessions at the annual meetings of all four societies over the next year.
Another upcoming paper, "The Thyroid and Cardiovascular Disease: A Research Agenda for Enhancing Knowledge, Prevention, and Treatment," will be co-published by the ATA and the American Heart Association in Thyroid® and in Circulation. This will present the results of an international working group convened by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and led by Anne Cappola which was designed to develop research priorities regarding the relationship of thyroid dysfunction to the progression of cardiovascular disease.
At the annual meeting on November 3, there will be a symposium co-hosted by the European Thyroid Association, British Thyroid Association, and the ATA and led by Jacqueline Jonklaas and Colin Dayan. This will take place simultaneously with live audiences in both Chicago and in London. This will be titled Evidence-Based use of T3+T4 Combinations and will include discussions of the literature regarding the use of combination therapy and practical clinical considerations. It will also be designed to generate a joint statement regarding the optimal design of clinical trials intended to determine whether combination therapy is truly beneficial.
As a reminder, in 2019 we hope to achieve full funding of the Ridgway Legacy endowment, which supports the annual trainee conference at the annual meeting. In addition, fundraising for the new Samuel Refetoff Fund, which is intended to support trainees and young investigators, to support ATA research awards, and to support the resistance to thyroid hormone symposium is now underway. You can make your own donation at https://www.thyroid.org/donate/.
President, American Thyroid Association
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