Endocrine Society Advocates to Protect and Increase Funding for the NIH
On March 5, the Endocrine Society will conduct a Researcher Hill Day to advocate for the importance of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
We are asking Congress to complete work on a funding bill for the remainder of fiscal year (FY) 2024, before funding expires March 8, that will maintain paylines and protect early-stage investigators and trainees, and for $51.3 billion for the NIH in FY 2025. On Hill Day, we will also advocate for the extension of the Special Diabetes Program (SDP) for two years with a 13% increase in funding.
TAKE ACTION: Amplify our message by joining in our online campaigns for research funding and SDP by visiting: endocrine.org/advocacy/take-action. Even if you cannot join us in Washington, D.C., for Hill Day, you can make your voice heard by your congressional delegation. In just three clicks you can send a letter template to your senators and representatives and support Endocrine Society priorities.
Clinical Endocrinology Mentorship Opportunity at ENDO2024
The Endocrine Society will host the second annual Endocrinology Mentor Day (eMD) at ENDO 2024 in Boston, on Sunday, June 2.
During the event, medical students and residents will be paired with an Endocrine Society member as their “mentor” for the day. Mentors will guide attendees around ENDO and introduce them to ENDO’s signature programs, including poster presentations, interesting case studies, and a plenary session. The event at ENDO 2023 in Chicago last year was a big success, due in large part to our terrific mentors.
If you are interested in joining us for this program as a mentor, or would like to learn more about the event, please email Ellie Cliff at: [email protected].
How to Incorporate the New Medicare Complex Code G2211 into Your Practice
The Endocrine Society has long advocated the need for Medicare to pay endocrinologists appropriately.
Due to our advocacy efforts, the 2024 Physician Fee Schedule includes an increase for endocrinology partly because of the opportunity to use a new complex add-on code. On January 29, the Endocrine Society hosted a members-only webinar explaining how clinicians can integrate the G2211 code into their practices. The recording of the webinar and additional resources can be found on our Physician Payment web page at: www.endocrine.org/improving-practice/macra. We also collected the questions asked during the webinar and created a “FAQ” document that can be found on the Physician Payment web page as well.
Endocrine Society Advances Women’s Health Through Research and Advocacy
As leaders in women’s health research, our members appreciate how persistent underinvestment in women’s health research has impacted our ability to understand and treat conditions that only affect women such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, and menopause; and those that affect women differently such as thyroid disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and infertility. We also know how basic science can help us understand how diseases may affect women differently through sex differences. We are therefore encouraged by the establishment of an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) charged with addressing the persistent gaps that remain in the knowledge of women’s health research across all NIH Institutes and Centers (ICs).
The NASEM Committee has ambitious objectives and sought expertise from our Society to inform their discussions and thinking as they develop recommendations for the NIH to consider and potentially adopt. Working with a group of member women’s health experts, we developed a detailed statement delivered to the committee in which we emphasized important endocrine-relevant issues. For instance, we urged the committee to consider a life course approach to the definition of women’s health from in utero development through advanced age; to consider gender and biological sex as essential components of women’s health; and to encourage the NIH to encourage and support women’s health researchers in fields across all institutes and centers at the NIH.
As leaders in women’s health research, our members appreciate how persistent underinvestment in women’s health research has impacted our ability to understand and treat conditions that only affect women such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, and menopause; and those that affect women differently such as thyroid disease, osteoporosis, diabetes, and infertility.
NASEM also invited us to deliver prepared remarks during the committee’s open session on March 7. Research Affairs Core Committee member Monica Laronda, PhD, shared the Endocrine Society’s priorities and insights, giving committee members the opportunity to ask questions and engage with us further as it seeks to fulfill its charge. We look forward to continuing to share our members’ perspective with the committee and working with the NIH to implement the recommendations arising from the report.
The week prior to the NASEM meeting saw the Endocrine Society participate in another event emphasizing women’s health. On February 29, during the 6th session of the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA6), the Endocrine Society participated in a meeting sponsored by the Women’s Major Group on how chemicals are affecting women’s health. Recognizing endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) as major contributors to women’s health issues such as breast and ovarian cancer, Marina Fernandez, PhD, was invited to share the latest scientific information about the impacts of EDCs in plastic on women’s health and our recommendations on how member states can improve public health by limiting exposure to hazardous chemicals.
Following this event, the Endocrine Society and the International Pollutants Elimination Network (IPEN) joined together to announce the launch of our latest collaborative report, “Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals: Threats to Human Health.” The report summarizes the latest scientific information on EDCs and their links to disease, including information on regulatory policies that have been updated in recent years to reduce exposures. The lead author on the report, Endocrine Society member Andrea Gore, PhD, participated in a media event during UNEA6 to share some of the key points raised in the report. The report is intended to inform policymakers and civil society organizations in their work to raise awareness and develop policies to minimize exposures to hazardous chemicals.
UNEA is the world’s most influential decision-making body on environmental issues, and we are thrilled to collaborate with the Women’s Major Group and IPEN to share our members’ scientific expertise with the assembled delegations.
EU Proposes Science-Based Restrictions on Bisphenols
Following the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) updated opinion on bisphenol-A (BPA), which indicated a concern for human health at extremely low levels of exposure, the European Commission announced a proposal to ban BPA in food contact materials (FCM) including plastic packaging and coatings. The Commission’s proposal also goes a step further by introducing restrictions on derivatives of BPA to prevent substitutions with other bisphenols with potentially similar hazardous properties.
We enthusiastically support the provisions to address BPA derivatives, which is consistent with our recommended approach for group-based restrictions on similar chemicals.
The Endocrine Society welcomes the new proposal, which is based on a systematic review of the latest science on BPA, including results from the Consortium Linking Academic and Regulatory Insights on BPA Toxicity (CLARITY-BPA). The Society’s EU EDCs Task Force has provided expert guidance to European agencies and the Commission on every step of this process, from suggesting studies to inform EFSA’s systematic review, to providing commentary on the draft opinion, and finally encouraging the Commission to prioritize this important regulation. We enthusiastically support the provisions to address BPA derivatives, which is consistent with our recommended approach for group-based restrictions on similar chemicals.
The proposal is open for a public consultation through early March, and our task force will carefully review the draft regulation and offer further suggestions to ensure that the final restrictions achieve the intended health protections and can be swiftly implemented.
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