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 Professor Bijay Vaidya 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 usually takes place each May

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Officers of the British Thyroid Association

President - Professor Simon Pearce, MD, FRCP

Simon Pearce is a Professor of Endocrinology at Newcastle University with a research interest in Addison’s disease (adrenal gland failure) and autoimmune thyroid diseases. He qualified in medicine at Newcastle University, completed his postgraduate education at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in Hammersmith, Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and as a Lecturer in Newcastle. He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Endocrinology in 2001 at Newcastle University and became Professor in 2007.

His main research area is the treatment for autoimmune thyroid diseases and Addison’s disease. He has published around 150 papers over the last 20 years spanning molecular endocrinology, clinical trials, and guideline papers.

Dr. Pearce works nationally and internationally on the executive committees for both the British and European Thyroid Associations. He is Editor in Chief of the European Thyroid Journal. The main theme of his current research program is to develop new treatments for autoimmune thyroid diseases and Addison’s disease.