Who is the British Thyroid Association?

The BTA began life as the Thyroid Club which had its inauguration on November 15th 1950. At that time Sir Thomas Dunhill was President, Dr (later Lord) Russell Brain was the Vice President and Dr (later Sir) Eric Pochin was Secretary. 16 London based clinicians and clinical investigators attended that meeting.

On 26th November 1997 the name of the club was changed to the current British Thyroid Association. In an ETA online article by Prof J H Lazarus he concludes "Unfortunately it has become clear that thyroid investigation currently does not seem to attract large funding from charitable organisations or the medical research council. However, high quality clinical investigation and scientific research is still part of the medical scene in the UK. This has been due in no small part to the enthusiasm of the founders of the club and their successors"

We are the only national professional organisation in the UK composed of research doctors and consultants who are accredited by having completed higher professional training in thyroid and other endocrine diseases. We rely on the voluntary subscriptions of our 200 members and upon the contributions from commercial companies with a medical or scientific interest in return for advertising at our meetings.

Please click here for our membership form and find out about our sponsorship opportunities. If you or your organisation would like to make a donation to the BTA in order to help us with our work please contact our secretary Dr Nadia Schoenmakers via [email protected]

As part of our commitment the BTA is responsible for the development and production of guidelines in various thyroidology subject areas as well as endorsing relevant guidelines prepared by other societies. We are also keen to support clinicians in offering thyroid patients the best quality of care delivered in an empathetic, individualised and patient-centred manner.

We are associated with the British Thyroid Foundation (BTF) and the Thyroid Disease Charitable Trust (TEDct) both of which are patient led officially registered charities which have been set up to support and education patients suffering from thyroid disease. We are also an affiliated society with the European Thyroid Association.

Annual General Meeting

This is taking place on June 14th 2024. Full details can be found here

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Officers of the British Thyroid Association

President - Professor Kristien Boelaert PhD, MRCP (Birmingham)

Kristien Boelaert is a Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham with a research interest in thyroid diseases. She qualified in medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and completed her postgraduate education in the West Midlands and the University of Birmingham as a Clinical Lecturer and an MRC Clinician Scientist. Kristien was appointed to Senior Lecturer in 2011 and became Professor in 2020.

Kristien’s clinical research interests include the management of thyroid dysfunction, nodules and cancer, as well as 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 diseases. She has published more than 150 papers over the last 20 years spanning discovery science, clinical research and trials and practice guidelines.

Kristien is the Chair of the Clinical Committee of the Society for Endocrinology and sits on various committees of the American Endocrine Society and the American Thyroid Association. She is Associate Editor of the Journal of the Endocrine Society and Advisory Board member of Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology. The main themes of her current research programme are thermal ablation techniques for thyroid nodules and cardiometabolic consequences of hyperthyroidism.