President's Message

From ThyroWorld, Volume 5, No. 1, Spring, 2002

Last year our seventh Annual TFI Conference was held in Warsaw in late August, just before the Annual Congress of the European Thyroid Association.

Representatives were present from Denmark, Norway, Finland, Canada, Russia, the Netherlands as well as two groups each from both Sweden and the United States. We also heard from several other groups by mail. A special feeling of friendship and cooperation was evident as we reviewed the accomplishments of the past year and plans for the future.

We talked about many issues, including: fundraising; development; international cooperation;educational projects; and cooperation with physicians to ensure that appropriate thyroid screening is being done, and that reliable thyroid hormone medication is available to anyone who needs it.

During the European Thyroid Association meetings, we enjoyed important clinical symposia on Graves' disease and thyroid cancer. We also heard an address by a representative of the Genzyme Corporation about plans for introducing Thyrogen into Europe, which should benefit many patients with thyroid cancer.

We were treated to an excellent review of important new findings and controversy in thyroid research by our Medical Adviser, Dr. David Cooper, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

We had many wonderful opportunities for social interaction with members of the European Thyroid Association, many of whom came to our booth for information about TFI, and to learn how to start a patient organization in their country.

Above all, we got to know each other, and shared a special time together in our meetings and in meals taken together in a variety of lovely Warsaw restaurants. We walked the city together, listened to a wonderful Chopin piano concert, learned about the tragic history of Poland, and the wonderful heroism of its inhabitants through hundreds of years.

As you can see, there are hardly words enough to describe our variety of experiences, and the value of the communication among our groups in helping each other in our efforts to help thyroid patients.

I hope that you all will make every effort to attend this year's meeting in Sweden, and will also join us in Edinburgh in 2003. We need to meet together to help each other so that we can all reach thyroid patients who need our guidance, and to those in our populations who have hidden thyroid illness. They need to be identified and helped to proper treatment as well.

With sincere best wishes to all,

Lawrence C. Wood, President, TFI