The Centennial celebration of the American Thyroid Association has been a time to reflect and recount many of the historical milestones over the past 100 years. CTFP is much younger than that, being about 16 years old. CTFP was the idea of Dr. Ernest Mazzaferri, who thought it would be a great opportunity to better inform patients by summarizing the latest research into thyroid diseases in language that would be understandable by the lay public. As we note in the Editor’s comments in every issue: “In this journal, we will bring to you the most up-to-date, cutting edge thyroid research… Our goal is to provide patients with the tools to be the most informed thyroid patient in the waiting room.”

The most current thyroid research is summarized for physicians in the monthly on-line journal Clinical Thyroidology. Dr. Mazzaferri suggested that we use the summaries in Clinical Thyroidology as the basis for this new journal and, in August and December 2008, Clinical Thyroidology for the Patient (the original name for CTFP) was born with Dr. Mazzaferri serving as the first Editor in Chief. CTFP became the 1st patient-focused journal to provide this detail of breaking clinical research to the lay public.

I took over as Editor in Chief of CTFP with Volume 2 in 2009 and started publishing issues every other month. Starting in 2010 with Volume 3, CTFP became a monthly on-line journal, summarizing the research that was presented to physicians the prior month in Clinical Thyroidology. Realizing that not just patients were interested in thyroid research, CTFP was re-named Clinical Thyroidology for the Public in 2014. This current issue (Volume 16, Issue 12) is our 176th issue.

In 2017, CTFP was honored with the “Outstanding Achievement Award, NonProfit” by Interactive Media Awards. Access to CTFP has always been open to all without cost and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

CTFP has succeeded in developing widespread and world-wide interest. In 2016, there were more than 800,000 page views/downloads from 156 countries. In 2023, this had grown to around 2.5 million page views/downloads from 208 countries. The top 10 countries accessing CTFP in 2023 are the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Canada, Australia, the Philippines, Ireland, Singapore, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Users from 99 countries downloaded complete PDFs of this journal in 2023, with the top 10 being the United States, Canada, India, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, Egypt and Australia.

CTFP would not be the journal that it is today without the participation of our excellent and dedicated editorial board, who are responsible for writing the summaries for CTFP. A total of 42 ATA members have served on the CTFP board since 2008, with the longest serving member being Dr. Whitney Woodmansee, who was part of my inaugural editorial board in 2009. Finally, essential to the success of CTFP is the tireless work of Sharleene Cano, ATA Director of Publications and Membership; Karen Durland, CTFP designer; Jane Arrington, Website designer; Bobbi Smith, our prior CEO; and Amanda Perl, our current CEO. I hope you all have enjoyed reading CTFP and find it interesting and informative.

— Alan P. Farwell, MD Editor-in-Chief