The 86th Annual Meeting of the American Thyroid Association (ATA) was the highest attended annual meeting to date. With 1314 attendees, we had nearly 100 more participants than our last annual meeting in 2014. Touted one of the best annual meetings to date, some feedback from attendees included, “This conference gives a depth of information that cannot be found at other groups,” “Great mix of basic science and clinical information,” and “Very good fellow directed lectures. Love the patient cases.” A great deal of thanks is due to the 2016 Annual Meeting Program Committee led by Co-Chairs Peter Arvan and Stephanie Fish who worked diligently to develop a well-rounded program with offerings to satisfy the many disciplines and constituents who take part in the ATA Annual meeting year after year. Special appreciation is also given to the 189 faculty members who offered their time and expertise for many great presentations, panel discussions. lectures and workshops on a variety of key topics in Thyroidology. Gratitude is afforded to the E. Chester Ridgway Trainee Conference Program Committee who continues to grow its program content and attendance annually. Their hard work and dedication to trainees has helped make the ATA one of the top resources for trainee development and education.

86th Annual Meeting of the ATA

A few of the 2016 meeting statistics include:

  • Attendance Categories: ATA Members: 415; Non-Members: 362; Trainees: 286; Exhibitors: 131; Spouse/Guests: 20; Press: 14; One-Day Passes: 66; Staff: 16
  • Professional Degrees: MD: 69.8% PhD: 8.1%; MD, PhD: 10.9%; DO: 1.6% RN/PA/NP: 1.1 %; Other/unidentified: 8.4%
  • Specialization: Clinician/Practitioner: 65.5%; Clinical Scientist: 14.8%; Basic Scientist: 9.1%; Educator/Teacher: 9.0%; Laboratory Investigator: 1.1; Administrator: 0.8%; Other/Not specified: 6.6%
  • Focus Area: Endocrinology: 56.9%; Basic Science: 7.7%; Surgery-Endocrine: 10.7%; Surgery-Otolaryngology: 4.7%; Nuclear Medicine: 1.6%; Internal Medicine: 2.9%; Oncology: 4.4%; Pathology: 1.3%; Family Medicine: 0.5 %; Other: 6.1%
  • State/Country Summary: 69% of attendees came from 48 states in the USA; 31% came from 58 countries around the world
  • Gender: Male: 52.0%; Female: 48.0%

ATA would like to acknowledge our Continuing Medical Education and other support contributions from Sanofi Genzyme, AbbVie, Veracyte, Ethicon-Endo Surgery, and Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Thanks is also given to our many exhibitors and industry partners who participated and contributed to the annual meeting via exhibit booth displays, support opportunity purchases along with independent educational programs. Industry support helps ATA offer great content, optimal meeting facilities and a conducive environment to network, learn and develop professionally.

86th Annual Meeting attendees who have not claimed their Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits from the live meeting to date should visit www.thyroid.org/CME. This link will be available until March 31, 2017 for your to visit the website, claim your credits and print your CME certificate. Enduring CME credits are not available for the 86th Annual Meeting of the ATA. If you have not participated in the post-meeting evaluation survey of the 86th Annual Meeting to date and would like to do so, please click here. Your feedback aids the ATA in providing top notch educational content to meet your professional needs as well as offer a forum to submit your comments, concerns or desires for future meetings.

We hope you are planning to join us at the 87th Annual Meeting of the ATA taking place October 18-22, 2017 at the Fairmont Empress and Victoria Conference Centre in Victoria, BC, Canada. Details for the 87th Annual Meeting will be posted on the ATA website in the coming months as available at www.thyroid.org or http://www.thyroid.org/87th-annual-meeting-ata/.