Editor’s Page: No Place Like Work Home

Mark Headshot

Seventeen voicemails, 14 boxes of Endocrine News, and a Costa Coffee tumbler bought in London in 2019 that was in dire need of a good scrubbing.

That’s what awaited me when I returned to my office at the Endocrine Society headquarters in Washington D.C. for the first since March 13, 2020. Honestly, it was good to be back in the office. There was a mix of trepidation and excitement…much like the first day of school. The Metro was eerily empty. So was D.C. as I passed restaurant after restaurant that had shuttered its doors for good. Even my favorite Starbucks was closed, albeit temporarily. Once I started working using my twin monitors, the change from staring at my laptop was jarring but in a welcomed, comforting way. It was good to be back in my work home.

Home is one of the terms I’ve heard many of you say through the years when referring to the Endocrine Society as your “professional home” and that makes perfect sense. As many of you have embarked on your training, through your early-career efforts, and onward as you work to establish yourselves professionally, the Endocrine Society has been a source professional advancement as well as personal relationships, and with each issue of Endocrine News we try to highlight both of these components as we bring you the latest endocrine research while also providing both clinicians and researchers with tips and tools of the trade in the hopes of making your own work home a better place.

As many of you have embarked on your training, through your early-career efforts, and onward as you work to establish yourselves professionally, the Endocrine Society has been a source professional advancement as well as personal relationships.

You’ll see five of our early-career researchers highlighted in “Researchers Roundtable” where the winners of the Endocrine Society’s Early Investigator Awards spoke to Glenda Fauntleroy Shaw about how they got to where they are now.  Each of them discusses their research, what this award means for them, their own personal issues in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as their future research plans. One of the winners, Manuel D. Gahete, PhD, from the University of Córdoba, in Andalusia, Spain, says that this award is not only an important milestone in his career, but it will serve to support his ongoing research, adding that it “boosts my enthusiasm and dedication to continue with research in the endocrinology field,” he tells us. “It will contribute to visualize the support and recognition of one of the most relevant Societies in the field to the research work I have developed during the earliest stages of my career, which will help to consolidate my emerging position within the endocrine field.”

Endocrine research is also the focus of “Collision Courses” as Kelly Horvath discusses the studies presented at ENDO 2021 that dealt with endocrine comorbidities and how they were affected by COVID-19. These studies looked at the virus’ impact on patients with obesity, hyperglycemia, adrenal insufficiency, as well as a lack of vitamin D. These studies are just a portion of our ENDO 2021 wrap up that also includes a Q&A with Hydeline B. Dominguez, MD, the first winner of the Endocrine Society’s C. Wayne Bardin International Travel Award, as well as testimonials from attendees who were able to attend from around the world.

Keep in mind that this will not be the last time Endocrine News features research presented at ENDO 2021; there was so much groundbreaking science presented at this year’s first-ever all virtual annual conference that we will have more articles highlighting these studies in upcoming issues.

If you have any ideas or suggestions for stories you’d like to see in Endocrine News, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

You may also like

  • Mom Was Right…

    My mother was a nurse. She had a tendency to look at the world two ways: her way and the wrong way. The problem, such as it was, typically turned out to be that her way was the right way. It was both comforting and infuriating all at once. I feel like there are many…

  • An Ode to Endocrine Society Members Around the World

    As I’ve often said in this column many times over the past decade, the biggest asset that Endocrine News possesses is you, the members of the Endocrine Society. It is an undeniable pleasure to have such a knowledgeable source of information at our fingertips and not only does it make my job easier, but it…