Secretary’s Update, April 2015

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

International Thyroid Congress (ITC)

This event, which is the major thyroid event and attraction for 2015, occupies our efforts and attention like nothing else. Abstract submissions for the International Thyroid Congress (ITC) in Orlando, October 18-23, opened on April 8, and will close on June 17. Housing is open now and meeting registration will open this week at http://www.thyroid.org/itc2015/. As usual for our annual meeting, we will also have a short-call abstract program and the submission period for it will be open August 12-16. The program committee is expecting a record number of submissions and has plans for reviewing them during a face-to-face meeting and returning the results promptly this summer. The committee, which is led by Rebecca Bahn and includes members from ETA, LATS, and AOTA, has assembled a terrific program which promises us a great week scientifically and educationally, to accompany the world-renowned social and recreational opportunities of Walt Disney World and the Orlando area. You will want to attend the opening ceremony prior to the opening session on Sunday evening at 5:30 and stay for the opening reception afterwards. Be sure to attend the closing ceremony at the end of the meeting on Friday morning, where a special announcement about 2020's ITC, hosted by AOTA, will be an exciting highlight.

Guidelines and Pocketcards

ATA has entered into an agreement with Guideline Central to produce "pocketcard" versions of our recent guidelines. The first of these, the Hypothyroidism Guidelines, should be available very soon and you will be able to see these online. Jacquie Jonklaas, co-chair of the Hypothyroidism Guidelines, has worked closely with writers from Guidelines Central to make sure that the card is an accurate representation of the published guidelines from THYROID. I have seen the draft, and it's beautiful! You will see these cards in print at meeting venues this summer and at the ITC this fall. In addition, ATA members will be provided complimentary access to the web and mobile app versions of the cards as a member benefit. The cards will make our guidelines, and ATA, even more pertinent and visible, and available for providers at the point of care.

The Medullary Thyroid Cancer guidelines update, led by Sam Wells, has been very recently accepted for publication and released for your reading as an e-publication from THYROID. Sam has also worked on a pocket card of this guideline which will follow the print publication in THYROID, June 2015.

Another major event for ATA this month has been the release of the first guidelines for Thyroid Nodules and Thyroid Cancer in Children, now available by e-publication in THYROID . Congratulations to Gary Francis, Steve Waguespack, and Andy Bauer and all the members of the task force for bringing this landmark publication forward. It clearly fits nicely into the collection of guidelines from ATA as the gold standard for the pediatric endocrinology and endocrine surgery communities for this most common of endocrine malignancies in children.

Website changes and usage

We recently reviewed our ATA website activity in order to understand better its visibility and position in the thyroid care and scientific e-marketplace. We learned that after the major updates and changes that were accomplished by the ATA headquarters' staff, led by director of technology and development, Kelly Hoff, our website experienced a 50% increase in "hits" during 2014 as compared to the year prior. The website hosted over 3 million sessions and over 5 million page views last year. 58% of the hits were of USA origin, but the remainders were from around the globe and no other country represented more than 5% of the total; the second through 5th highest countries of origin of the hits was: India, Canada, UK and Spain, followed by Australia, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, and Chile. We also learned that search engines generally find ATA sites and content very well when searching for thyroid topics, and for key thyroid search terms, the ATA website compares to Mayo Clinic and WebMD, both of whom have vastly more resources and spend more money on their web presence that we are able to afford. We will be making some alterations in our website to make our thyroid cancer information more visible and will also be pursuing a more robust mobile responsive design theme to meet the demands of Google's recent algorithm update. Overall, we were very pleased with what we learned, which indicates that our website supports our mission which is to be "leading organization devoted to thyroid biology and to the prevention and treatment of thyroid disease through excellence in research, clinical care, education, and public health." If you have not visited it recently, I invite you do so www.thyroid.org now and explore the wealth of information for patients, physicians and scientists, and educational materials that are found there, even before logging on as a member of ATA. Click here for a summary report of ATA's 2014 website statistics/performance.

That's all for now. Today, at the end of April, the leaves are popping out on the trees in Minnesota, a sure sign of spring and the great and busy summer to come. Make your plans now for the fall at the ITC in Orlando. See you there!

John C. Morris, MD
Secretary/Chief Operating Officer