Forging a path to clear diagnosis in thyroid disease
In collaboration with opinion leaders at Johns Hopkins, National Institutes of Health, and the University of Colorado, as well as our clients at Veracyte, Medical Minds developed prelaunch symposia and materials to educate endocrinologists on the clinical situation, current testing options, and potential contribution of molecular cytology as a new and innovative test modality for the assessment of thyroid nodules.
Indeterminate results on thyroid fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy samples are a common and significant problem for physicians and their patients. FNA sample analyses, which can be challenging to interpret, produce inconclusive results in up to 30% of cases. Current guidelines recommend that most patients with thyroid nodules undergo surgery. However, in the majority of these cases (approximately 100,000 patients per year in the US) the nodules end up being benign.
We developed a 120-slide library as the foundation for education and managed symposia at the American Thyroid Association (ATA) and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), both of which were oversubscribed. We also prepared poster presentations for the ATA, AACE, and the International Thyroid Congress (ITC).
The prelaunch education developed in collaboration with Veracyte helped set the foundation for a new category of diagnostic tests. Since launching its Afirma® Thyroid FNA Analysis in 2011, Veracyte has helped thousands of patients with thyroid nodules avoid unnecessary surgery, reducing healthcare costs by millions of dollars.