Preview of the 93rd American Thyroid Association Annual Meeting

Pre-Meeting Programs, Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Back by popular demand, we have a full day of pre-meeting sessions planned. We will offer the annual E. Chester Ridgway Conference specifically designed for trainees, which this year is co-chaired by F. Thurston Drake, MD and Iñigo Landa, PhD. During this conference, trainees will have the opportunity to learn from and network with leading thyroidology experts. We also have two opportunities for hands-on learning: the advanced ultrasound course ² and the interventional endocrinology workshop. Finally, we are again offering an interactive leadership development workshop ³ for those interested in networking and expanding leadership skills.

ATA Annual Meeting, Thursday, October 31, 2024–Sunday, November 3, 2024

We are excited to bring you many exciting sessions this year including plenaries, symposia, debates, guideline updates, panel discussions, meet the professors, and thyroid dialogue networking sessions as well as our oral and poster abstracts. There will be both clinical and basic parallel sessions throughout the meeting providing a continuous variety of learning opportunities for everyone. Additionally, there will be dedicated pediatric ⁴ and surgical ⁵ symposia. We’ve also curated the basic science sessions ⁶ to make the meeting easier to navigate!

We will kick off the meeting with basic, clinical, and surgical year in thyroidology presented by Douglas Forrest, PhD, Jennifer Sipos, MD, and Elizabeth Gardner Grubbs, MD, where we will hear about the most impactful advances and publications over the previous year.

For this year’s Sawin Lecture, Angela M. Leung, MD will discuss Landmark Discoveries in Maternal–Fetal Thyroid Disease over the past century.

Guidelines: This is the year of many anticipated final ATA guideline updates! We will hear about four updated ATA guidelines including (1) Medullary Thyroid Carcinoma Systemic Therapies chaired by Mimi Hu, MD and Tania Jaber, MD, (2) Thyroid Nodules chaired by Susan Mandel, MD and Lisa Orloff, MD, (3) Thyroid Cancer chaired by Matt Ringel, MD and Julie Ann Sosa, MD, and (4) Thyroid in Pregnancy chaired by Angela M. Leung, MD and Tim Korevaar, MD, PhD.

Thyroid Disorders: Elizabeth McAninch, MD and Donald McLeod, MD will debate which tests are best when monitoring treatment of primary hypothyroidism and Josef Köhrle, PhD will discuss the limitations of available thyroid hormone assays. We will also have a symposium where Jacqueline Jonklaas, MD, PhD, Peter Taylor, MD, and Antonio Bianco, MD, PhD discuss the physiological basis of triiodothyronine (T3) in the treatment of hypothyroidism and quality of life with thyroxine (T4) monotherapy versus combination T4/T3 therapy as well as the joint British Thyroid Association Guidelines on T3 therapy in hypothyroidism. There will be a symposium addressing the changing attitudes towards traditional therapies for hyperthyroidism, what to do when conventional treatment is not enough, and insight into what the future holds at the current inflexion point. A case-based discussion highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary collaborations between endocrinologists and ophthalmologists and oculoplastic surgeons in the treatment of difficult thyroid eye disease cases with Chrysoula Dosiou, MD and Suzanne K. Freitag, MD is also on the schedule.

Thyroid Nodules and Cancer: We will have a symposium on non-surgical interventions for thyroid nodules with Victoria E. Banuchi, MD, Claire Elizabeth Graves, MD, and Debra J. Margulies, MD as well as a session on Putting New Pathological Entities into Clinical Care: 2023 Bethesda and 2022 World Health Organization with Zubair W. Baloch, MD, PhD, Justine Barletta, MD, and Fernanda Vaisman, MD, PhD. There will also be a case-based panel discussion with Laura Boucai, MD, Bryan Haugen, MD, Steven I. Sherman, MD, and Jolanta Durski, MD on the role of radioactive iodine in intermediate risk thyroid cancer. We will also have a symposium addressing the role of molecular testing at various stages of thyroid cancer and the influence of molecular mutations and fusions in the evaluation and management of thyroid cancer with Rosella Elisei, MD, Matti Gild, MD, and Ali Alzahrani, MD. We are also excited to have a symposium dedicated to neoadjuvant therapy in the treatment of anaplastic thyroid cancer, medullary thyroid cancer, and differentiated thyroid cancer with Richard Wong, MD, Bhavana Konda, MD, and Mark Zafereo, MD. We will wrap up the meeting with a perennial favorite, the Tumor Board chaired by Sarah Mayson, MD and David Shonka, MD feature panelists Francis Worden, MD, Michael Yeh, MD and Nicole Massol, MD.

Thyroid Cancer Survivorship: This year, we will have a session dedicated to thyroid cancer survivorship issues, including fertility, as well as chronic cardiac and bone health considerations. Additionally, we will have a meet-the-professor thyroid dialogue session with Maria Papaleontiou, MD, Michelle Merten, NP, and Anne Knape, NP addressing the practical issues of designing and implementing survivorship clinics.

Surgical: The dedicated surgical symposium will cover surgical management of concurrent thyroid and parathyroid disease, management of recurrent/re-operative disease and surgery for advanced thyroid cancer. Additionally, there will be a session addressing unique surgical considerations for those undergoing surgery for hyperparathyroidism as well as long term management of hypoparathyroidism.

Pediatrics: There will be a dedicated pediatric symposium covering thyroid autoimmunity and inherited syndromes, thyroid imaging, and a pediatric tumor board.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): You will hear from Sonja Krane, PhD and Melissa Kacena, PhD about AI and its use in scientific publishing. Additionally, we will have a symposium addressing concerns and obstacles to AI adoption in medicine and thyroidology with Juan P. Brito, MD, Naykky Maruquel Singh Ospina, MD, and Franklin Tessler, MD.

Basic Sessions: The Basic Science Track this year will feature ten symposium/sessions, and all clinical guideline sessions will have an opposing basic science option. Featured topics include a session on chromatin remodeling and epigenetics and a session on morphogenesis and regeneration. Several symposia will focus on thyroid hormone action and metabolism in non-thyroid tissues such as the brain, liver, intestine, and adrenal gland. A meet-the-professor session will delve into how to apply the latest advances in genome sequencing to thyroid research.

Translational topics will be covered including resistance to thyroid hormone due to mutations in thyroid receptor alpha (TRα) and the pathogenesis of autoimmune thyroid disease. Sessions related to basic thyroid cancer research include a symposium on the impact of epigenetics on thyroid cancer biology and a meet-the-professor on the use of organoids and cell lines for research.

Other Featured Events: The meeting will feature the announcements of the annual ATA Awards and Award Lectures. A plenary session planned by Women in Thyroidology will be presented by Hala Sabry, MD speaking about wellness and community building. A late breaking session is being organized to discuss recent advances in the clinical application of thyroid hormone analogs. There will be an opportunity to learn more about endocrine disrupting chemicals, thyroid diseases, and the role of disparities. A meet-the-professor led by Susan Pitt, MD will discuss how to design a clinical trial. Networking sessions will be organized for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Women in Thyroidology, Basic Scientists, and Training Program Directors.

New This Year: We will have an all-attendee photo Thursday night immediately preceding the Bobbi Smith Networking Social: Halloween Happy Hour. Bring your costumes! On Saturday evening, the Annual Meeting Closing Party will feature appetizers, drinks, and dancing.

To see the entire program, please visit the ATA website. ⁷ We can’t wait to see you in Chicago!