Endocrine Insider
June 14, 2007
Advocacy
In order to increase awareness of issues important to the Society’s membership, Government & Public Affairs staff provided ENDO attendees with an opportunity to participate in grassroots advocacy by writing to their senators and representatives about two critical issues: increasing funding for NIH in FY 2008 and halting payment cuts for medical imaging procedures performed in the physician’s office. Strong interest from the membership on these two issues resulted in approximately 250 letters being sent to Congress.
Media
DISCOVER Magazine, in partnership with The Endocrine Society, sponsored a unique public roundtable discussion at ENDO 07. “Redefining Aging: the Impact of Endocrine Research” engaged a select panel of Society members* to discuss the potential opportunities and risks surrounding the use of hormones in an attempt to forestall the effects of aging. Held June 3 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the roundtable forms the foundation of a strong editorial outreach on hormones and aging by DISCOVER. The contents of this roundtable will be published as a feature article in an upcoming issue of the magazine, and the video from the event will be posted on the DISCOVER website (www.discovermagazine.com). Considered the world’s largest circulation general science publication, DISCOVER Magazine has been a prominent feature on newsstands for more than 25 years.
*Panelists included Dr. Marc Blackman, National Institutes of Health; Dr. Ginger Constantine, Wyeth Research; Dr. Adrian Sandra Dobs, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; Dr. Andrea Dunaif, Northwestern University; Dr. M. Sara Rosenthal, University of Kentucky School of Medicine; and Dr. Michael Thorner, University of Virginia Health Systems.
Clinical Practice Guidelines
ENDO 07 featured scientific sessions on three clinical practice guidelines—Prevention and Treatment of Pediatric Obesity, Management of Thyroid Dysfunction during Pregnancy and Postpartum, and Androgen Therapy in Women. Each session included an overview of the guideline from the chair of the task force that developed it, including highlights, recommendations, and challenges, and an open discussion led by an independent moderator. The moderator began each session by using a new Audience Response System to poll audience members on how they would handle a clinical scenario. The clinical vignettes were used to highlight controversial issues within the guideline topic and to measure the effectiveness of the guideline for the clinical endocrinologist.
Management of Thyroid Dysfunction during Pregnancy and Postpartum is scheduled for publication in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCE&M). Androgen Therapy in Women is currently available at http://www.endo-society.org/quickcontent/
clinicalpractice/clinical-guidelines/CG_AndroWomen.cfm. Prevention & Treatment of Pediatric Obesity is currently under peer review with JCE&M.
New CDC Collaboration
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is collaborating with The Endocrine Society on a project to improve the accuracy and reliability of clinical testosterone (T) measurements. The initiative resulted from the Society’s call for standardization of T assays, as detailed in the Society’s position statement Utility, Limitations, and Pitfalls in Measuring Testosterone (J Clin Endo Met 92(2):405–413). The official public announcement of the collaboration occurred at ENDO 07 with a workshop describing the issue and outlining the steps to be taken to address the problem. The workshop was chaired by William Rosner, MD, and featured presentations from Hershel Raff, PhD, and CDC official Hubert Vesper, PhD.
