Kelly G. Ripken's Best Thyroid Web Sites

The Thyroid Foundation of America is a nonprofit organization created in 1985 to provide health education and support for thyroid patients and health professionals and increase public awareness about thyroid problems. It prepares educational brochures and a quarterly newsletter for thyroid patients and health professionals with up-to-date reviews of important thyroid topics, reports on TFA Chapter activities, and notices about books and meetings of interest to thyroid patients and health professionals. Its Web site includes a glossary of thyroid related terms and information on a wide variety of topics under "ThyroNotes." http://www.allthyroid.org

The National Graves' Disease Foundation, established in 1990, is the only national, lay, nonprofit, educational organization open exclusively to people with Graves' disease.

The Foundation provides education and support for the patients, their families, friends and health care professionals. For the past 8 years, the Foundation has held an annual patient/family conference. Its Web site includes a list of support groups around the country, frequently asked questions about Graves' disease, membership applications, and more. http://www.ngdf.org

The Thyroid Foundation of Canada/La Fondation Canadienne de la Thyroid maintains a Web site that provides up-to-date information for thyroid patients and their families. It also maintains links to other health and thyroid related organizations and Internet resources. Several parts of the site make it worth visiting. They include health guides, an international directory of Thyroid-related organizations, and some articles reprinted from the foundation’s quarterly bulletin, Thyrobulletin. The French version of the site makes it an important resource for French-speaking patients and families. http://home.ican.net/~thyroid/Canada.html

ThyroLink, maintained by the European pharmaceutical company Merck KgaA, is a Web site that pulls together material about the thyroid diseases from all over the World Wide Web. Thyrolink can facilitate searching because it has linked areas such as patient information from a variety of Web sites onto its Web page. It also connects to thyroid/endocrine journals, Medline and several online bookstores. http://www.thyrolink.com

EndocrineWeb (Endocrine Disorders and Endocrine Surgery) is a commercial site developed by YourDoctor, Inc. The information is intended for the education of patients and their families; the company states that the site is updated twice a week though only on the site map is there any indication that new material has been added. There is a large amount of information and many illustrations on endocrine disease, conditions, hormone problems, and treatment options including all types of thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal surgery. Though it has a section to "find a doctor," there are very few doctors listed. The Web site of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists is the place to find physicians in your city and/or states or countries. http://www.endocrineweb.com

Mayo Clinic Health Oasis is an Internet source of reliable health information from the Mayo Clinic. An editorial board of the Mayo staff selects health topics and enlists specialists to be expert sources for each article. The articles are dated, and the Web site is updated weekly. This is a good source for up-to-date, reliable information about the thyroid gland and its various diseases. Search a topic, such as "thyroid" or "Graves’ disease," and find a list of articles that are current and relevant. The articles have good illustrations, many of which are in color. http://www.mayohealth.org

The American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), an organization representing 2,600 practicing clinical endocrinologists, maintains a Web site that is full of helpful information. Patients can find a practicing clinical endocrinologist around the world just by typing in a city, state, country and specialty. There is also a self-test for people concerned about potential thyroid problems. Patients can read the complete clinical guidelines that AACE has developed for physicians to use in diagnosing, treating, and following patients with hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism. In addition, there are informative press releases and other information. http://www.aace.com

The American Thyroid Association is a professional society of physicians and scientists who treat and perform research related to thyroid diseases. For a complete directory of patient support organizations, this is the place to look, under the site's Patient Information section. Informative brochures and books are also listed there. The American Thyroid Association presents its authoritative clinical guidelines, which have been developed for use by primary care physicians in the evaluation and management of patients with hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, and thyroid nodules. http://www.thyroid.org

The Endocrine Society, with more than 9,000 members from 78 countries, is the world's largest and most active organization devoted to the research, study and clinical practice of endocrinology. Together, these scientists, educators, clinicians, practicing MDs, nurses and students who make up the organization's membership represent all basic, applied and clinical interests in endocrinology. The Society's web site allows patients to read about the work of endocrinologists and search the table of contents and abstracts of articles in their journals. Its list of other endocrine web sites for professional and patients is particularly useful. http://www.endo-society.org