New Governing Council Members

FIVE MEMBERS ELECTED TO GOVERNING COUNCIL

Endocrine Society members have elected five new officers and council members to lead the Society. These new officers will have a lasting impact on the Society and will help to determine its future direction in the coming years.

The new officers and council members are:

• Henry M. Kronenberg, MD: president-elect
• Richard S. Legro, MD: secretary treasurer-elect
• Anthony L. McCall, MD, PhD: vice president, clinical scientist
• Alan C. Dalkin, MD: council member, physician-in-practice seat
• Beverly M. K. Biller, MD: council member, at-large seat

Kronenberg will serve as presidentelect in 2015 – 2016 and then as president in 2016 – 2017. He is chief of the Endocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, and is also a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. An active Society volunteer for more than two decades, he has served as vice president, basic science, and as a member of the Society’s Leadership Council. He also served on a number of Society committees, including the Laureate Awards Committee and Research Affairs Core Committee. He received his MD from Columbia University

Legro will serve as secretary treasurerelect for one year and then begin a three-year term as secretary treasurer (2016 – 2019). He is professor of obstetrics and gynecology and public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pa. An active Society member for nearly 17 years, he serves on the Finance and Audit Committee and previously served on the Research Affairs Core Committee. He also has served on the editorial boards for The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism and Endocrine Reviews. He received his MD from Mount Sinai Medical School.

McCall will serve a three-year term as vice president, clinical scientist (2015 – 2018). He is the James M. Moss Professor of Diabetes at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Va., and a member and investigator at UVA Medical Center’s Center for Diabetes Technology. He also is medical director for the Virginia Center for Diabetes Professional Education. An active Society member for more than three decades, he has served as clinical science chair for the Society’s annual meeting and a member of the Annual Meeting Steering Committee. He received his MD from Medical College of Wisconsin and his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dalkin will serve a three-year term in the physician-in-practice designated seat on the Council (2015 – 2018). He is professor of medicine in the University of Virginia’s Department of Medicine. A Society member for more than 25 years, he is the self-assessment chair for the Society’s Scientific and Educational Programs Core Committee and chairs the Self-Assessment Committee. He previously served on the Membership Committee and Journals Managing Subcommittee. He received his MD from the University of Michigan.

Biller will serve a three-year term as an at-large member of the Council (2015 – 2018). She is a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. A Society member for 25 years, she chaired the Scientific and Educational Programs Core Committee and served on numerous committees, including the Laureate Awards Committee and Nominating Committee. A past editor of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, she also has served as clinical science chair for the Society’s Annual Meeting Steering Committee. She received her MD from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine.

The new officers and council members will begin serving their terms following ENDO 2015, which will take place in San Diego, Calif., March 5 – 8, 2015.

The Best of JCEM 2014 Is Now Available

The Best of JCEM 2014 captures the outstanding progress of scientifici research made in the field of endocrinology in 2014. Acompilation of the most highly rated peer-reviewed articles, this collection highlights a year’s worth of important advances and noteworthy developments. These previously published works all appeared on the pages of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism throughout 2014. Each article presents research findings in a different subspecialty of clinical endocrinology. Subspecialties covered include:

• Lipids
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Thyroid
• Bone/Calcium/Vitamin D
• Female Reproduction
• Male Reproduction Genetics
• Adrenal/Pituitary
• Best Clinical Trial

The Best of JCEM 2014 highlights an outstanding quality of research from internationally recognized clinical researchers and scientists. Curated by JCEM Editor in Chief, Paul Robertson, this edition will quickly get you up to date on a full range of new research in endocrine science and medicine.

Visit press.endocrine.org/jcem/bestof2014 to view the complete collection online.

Attending ENDO 2015? Make sure you schedule time to hear from The Best of JCEM 2014 authors as they present their research and new updates during special scientific session at ENDO, Sunday March 8, 9:30 AM — 12:30PM. This is an ideal opportunity to celebrate the quality of work published in JCEM and to catch up on outstanding progress in all areas of clinical endocrinology. Pick up a free printed copy of The Best of JCEM 2014 at the Endocrine Society booth at the ENDOExpo.

Society Publishes Clinical Practice Guideline on OBESITY MEDS

The Endocrine Society has issued a Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) on strategies for prescribing drugs to manage obesity and promote weight loss.

The CPG, entitled “Pharmacological Management of Obesity: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline,” was published online and in the February 2015 print issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Obesity is a worsening public health problem. According to the 2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, about 33.9% of adults ages 19 – 79 were overweight, 35.1% were obese, and 6.4% were extremely obese.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved three new anti-obesity drugs — lorcaserin, phentermine/topiramate, and naltrexone/bupropion — in the past two years. Medications like these can be used in combination with diet and exercise to help people lose weight.

“Lifestyle changes should always be a central part of any weight loss strategy,” says Caroline M. Apovian, MD, of Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, and chair of the task force that authored the guideline. “Medications do not work by themselves, but they can help people maintain a healthy diet by reducing the appetite. Adding a medication to a lifestyle modification program is likely to result in greater weight loss.”

In the CPG, the Society recommends that diet, exercise, and behavioral modifications be part of all obesity management approaches. Other tools such as weight loss medications and bariatric surgery can be combined with behavioral changes to reduce food intake and increase physical activity. Patients who have been unable to successfully lose weight and maintain a goal weight may be candidates for prescription medication if they meet the criteria on the drug’s label.

Other recommendations from the CPG include:

• If a patient responds well to a weight loss medication and loses 5% or more of their body weight after three months, the medication should be continued. If the medication is ineffective or the patient experiences side effects, the prescription should be stopped and an alternative medication or approach considered.
• Since some diabetes medications are associated with weight gain, people with diabetes who are obese or overweight should be given medications that promote weight loss or have no effect on weight as first- and second-line treatments. Doctors should discuss medications’ potential effects on weight with patients.
• Certain types of medication — angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and calcium channel blockers — should be used as a first-line treatment for high blood pressure in obese people with Type 2 diabetes. These are effective blood pressure treatments that are less likely to contribute to weight gain than the alternative medication, beta-adrenergic blockers.
• When patients need medications that can have an impact on weight such as antidepressants, antipsychotic drugs, and medications for treating epilepsy, they should be fully informed and provided with estimates of each option’s anticipated effect on weight. Doctors and patients should engage in a shared decision-making process to evaluate the options.
• In patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure or a history of heart disease, the medications phentermine and diethylpropion should not be used.

Other members of the Endocrine Society task force that developed this CPG include: Louis J. Aronne, WeillCornell Medical College, New York, N.Y.; Daniel H. Bessesen, Denver Health Medical Center, Denver, Colo.; Marie E. McDonnell, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Mass.; Mohammad Hassan Murad, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.; Uberto Pagotto, Alma Mater University, Bologna, Bologna, Italy; Donna H. Ryan, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, La.; and Christopher D. Still, Geisinger Health Care System, Danville, Pa.

The CPG was co-sponsored by the European Society of Endocrinology and The Obesity Society.

SIMINERIO Named Chair of National Diabetes Education Program

Linda Siminerio, RN, PhD, has been named the new chair of the National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP), a joint program of the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As chair of the NDEP, Siminerio will facilitate the adoption of proven approaches to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes and its complications. Siminerio, who served as executive director of the Diabetes Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, brings more than 40 years of nursing and diabetes-related experience to this position. The Society, which is actively involved in a number of NDEP activities and serves on its startegic directions group, looks forward to working with Siminerio on future endeavors.

For more information, go to http://ndep.nih.gov.