New developments in thyroid disease: special causes of abnormal thyroid function tests and thyroid disease and pregnancy.

FPM monthly webinars provide updates for clinical trainees, senior clinicians, policy makers, academics and other health professionals on prevention, diagnosis and treatment of common and serious clinical disorders – both for communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Contributors and discussants: Dr Tim Korevaar, Endocrinologist, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam and Dr Edward Visser, Endocrinologist, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, Dr Carla Moran, Consultant Endocrinologist at the Beacon Hospital in Dublin and Kristien Boelaert, Professor of Endocrinology and Consultant Endocrinologist and Director NIHR Integrated Academic Training Programme, University of Birmingham, UK.

Moderators Dr Jan Willem Elte, Gouda, The Netherlands; Professor Donald Singer, President, Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine, London, UK

This webinar is organised by the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.

Panel

Kristien Boelaert is a Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham and a Consultant Endocrinologist at University Hospitals Birmingham. Her clinical research interests include the management of thyroid dysfunction, nodules and endocrine disorders in pregnancy. Her laboratory research programme focuses on the pathogenesis of thyroid cancer and she is involved in a number of clinical trials in the field of thyroid disease. She is the Clinical Lead for the NICE Guidelines on Thyroid Diseases, the National Consensus Statements on Management of Thyroid Cancer and the RCOG Green Top Guidelines for Management of Thyroid Diseases in Pregnancy. Kristien’s research continues to attract funding from major grant awarding bodies including the MRC, the Wellcome Trust, CRUK and other Charities. The impact of her research is evidenced by a rapidly growing list of publications and numerous invitations to speak at international conferences. She is Senior Editor for Endocrine Connections and BMC Endocrine Disorders and serves on the Editorial Boards of several endocrine journals including Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. She is a member of the Society for Endocrinology Council and Clinical Committee, the ATA Research Committee, the Endocrine Society Annual Steering Committee and the RCP Specialist Certificate Examination Board.

Dr Jan Willem F Elte is an internist-endocrinologist, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), the American College of Physicians (FACP), the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine (London) and European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM: Hon). He is (co-) author and editor of publications and books on thyroid, diabetes, obesity, organization of Internal Medicine and differential diagnosis. Dr Elte is a member of the European Board of Internal Medicine, Secretary General of the Foundation for the Development of Internal Medicine in Europe, and a European Medicines Agency Scientific Committee member and expert as an EFIM delegate. He worked in the Sint Franciscus Gasthuis, Rotterdam 1987-2011 (Deputy Head of Training 1991-2006), and 2012-2014 in the Groene Hart Ziekenhuis, Gouda. He was Secretary of the Section of Endocrinology of the NIV (Neth.Ass.Int.Med.) and former Treasurer of the NIV, AEMI (also President of Young AEMIE) and EFIM. He was a Member of the European Board of Endocrinology and Secretary General of the European Federation of Internal Medicine (EFIM) and co-director of the European School of Internal Medicine 2017-2019. He has been a member of the Editorial Boards of The European Journal of Internal Medicine (Founding Deputy Editor), The Postgraduate Medical Journal, Clinical Medicine and Internisten Vademecum (NL). At his retirement in 2011 he was knighted and became Honorary Member of the NIV.

Dr Tim Korevaar is a Post-Doctoral Endocrinology Research Fellow at the Erasmus University Medical Centre in Rotterdam where he carries out research on gestational endocrinology, mainly focussing on gestational thyroid disease and diabetes. He went to medical school at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam. During his studies, he had a 7-month research internship at the University of Oxford with Niki Karavitaki and Ashley Grossman – which fuelled his passion for research and endocrinology. His PhD at Erasmus was on thyroid disease in pregnancy. At the same time, he obtained a Master’s in Clinical Epidemiology, which has allowed him to perform studies aimed at translating the complex thyroid physiology of pregnancy into clinical associations and their impact on clinical interpretations and risks. He then spent six months at the Harvard School of Public Health with Russ Hauser, to focus on thyroid and fertility and thyroid disruptors. From 2020-2021 he is a visiting Clinical Fellow in Obstetric Medicine, St. Thomas’ Hospital, King’s College, London. His current research focuses on gestational thyroid disease and diabetes. 

Dr Carla Moran is a Consultant Endocrinologist at the Beacon Hospital in Dublin.  Following specialist training in Endocrinology & Diabetes Mellitus she undertook a fellowship in thyroid disease at Addenbrooke’s Hospital & the University of Cambridge, UK, while characterising human aspects of Resistance to Thyroid Hormone (RTH) for her PhD degree. For 5 years she led the thyroid service in Cambridge, where she developed specialist thyroid services (including pregnancy, rare thyroid disorders, virtual clinics, thyroid biopsy clinic) and directed a national referral service for patients with unusual thyroid function tests. Since returning to Ireland in 2019, she has established a national referral service for rare thyroid disease and she continues to perform research through collaboration with the University of Cambridge. She maintains roles in international societies, such as the British Thyroid Association (secretary), American Thyroid Association (History and Archives committee member), is an editorial board member for the Journal of the Endocrine Society and an invited member of UK & European guideline development committees for thyroid disease. 

Professor Donald Singer is a Clinical Pharmacologist interested in new approaches to personalising medicine and in public understanding of health and drugs. He is President of the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine and Chair of healthy heart charity the Cardiovascular Research Trust, London, UK. He trained  in renal medicine at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London and went on to become a clinician and researcher at Charing Cross and Westminster Medical School, St George’s Medical School, Imperial College at Harefield and Warwick Medical School. He has also worked as a clinical pharmacologist for Yale School of Medicine within  US-AID and CDC-supported programmes in Rwanda.  @HealthMed

Dr Edward Visser is an Endocrinologist at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam in The Netherlands. He had his clinical training at the Erasmus MC and the Addenbrookes hospital (University of Cambridge, UK). He obtained his PhD (with honors) at the Erasmus MC. He is head of the Rotterdam Thyroid Centre, including the research laboratory and runs general endocrine as well as specialized thyroid clinics. His major focus of research is the role of local thyroid hormone signaling in health and disease. His academic interests include clinical and basic studies in rare thyroid diseases, in particular thyroid hormone resistance (RTH) disorders. The main focus is on identification of novel transporters and associated diseases, as well as exploring underlying mechanisms and treatment options of known syndromes. He is member of the Executive Committee of the European Thyroid Association and in the steering committee of Endo-ERN (and Adult Chair for Thyroid). He has published >80 peer-reviewed publications and is a member on several editorial boards of endocrine journals.