15 May 2025, The Netherlands

Julius Clinical’s Scientific Officer, practising internist, and founding member of the Dutch Thyroid Network (Schildkliernetwerk – Home), Dr Manuel Castro Cabezas, was delighted to sit down with Dr Marco Medici, an Endocrinologist at the Erasmus Medical Centre (and Dutch Thyroid Network member) and Dr Tessa van Ginhoven, an endocrine surgeon at Erasmus MC and current Network president, to speak about this ongoing project.

Firstly can you tell us a little bit about the Network?

The Dutch Thyroid Network started in 2018 with four secondary care (non-academic) hospitals and 1 Academic Centre (Erasmus MC) in the Netherlands. The Network has since grown to include 12 hospitals. The objective has remained the optimisation of patient care through knowledge sharing between thyroid and parathyroid specialists with wide-ranging expertise.

The teams participating in the Network are comprised of internist/endocrinologists and surgeons, as well as nuclear physicians, pathologists, ophthalmologists, radiologists, oncologists, radiotherapists, nurse specialists and research nurses, who meet bi-weekly to discuss cases and collaborate on projects.

What do patients gain from this type of network?

Clinical networks such as the Thyroid Network assist in identifying and remedying gaps in patient care knowledge. The participating hospitals work together closely and have also optimised patient referral pathways between the various types of hospitals, promoting the right care at the right place.

How does the Network benefit research?

While non-academic hospitals tend to work with large patient populations and more common disorders, the academic hospital specializes in more rare conditions (e.g. advanced cancers), and closely collaborates with a dedicated eye hospital on thyroid eye disease.  In this way this Network serves the full width of thyroid diseases, which is unique in the world. The institutions mutually benefit from working so closely together, sharing theoretical knowledge, resources and facilities with hands-on clinical expertise.

Depending on the type of research/trial, hospitals can either serve as a recruiting trial centre or referring centre. The efficacy of this approach is illustrated by a large national randomized controlled trial on T3/T4 combination therapy for hypothyroidism, in which this Network plays a leading role (www.t3-4-hypotrial.nl). This trial has enrolled over 400 patients, which is ahead of schedule.

Another advantage for clinical trial sponsors is the fact that a central point of contact is established to coordinate interest in participation from all 12 hospitals during the bi-weekly meetings.

The network is also involved as a test case in a pilot for a large data hub which aims to facilitate big data analysis in the future.

What has kept the Network going strong?

We are proud of the Network’s clinical and scientific contributions and think the reason for this ongoing and successful endeavour is twofold.

Firstly the Network is centered on patient wellbeing. This common goal has united us and helped to forge enthusiastic partnerships.Secondly, through this long term and varied collaboration, a lot of trust has built up amongst the members. We have experience working within one another’s hospitals, and we run a yearly symposium where members present research and participate together in various other activities. We also have strong international connections through the various members who have often practiced or taught abroad, or through research projects.

We welcome collaboration with outside parties in the spirit of adding to the growing body of knowledge in thyroid care.