Pediatric otolaryngologist Jonathan Walsh and pediatric endocrinologist Yasmin Akhtar discuss the multidisciplinary approach to care offered at the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Thyroid Center as well as how the team transitions pediatric patients to care in the adult setting.
So the johNS Hopkins pediatric thyroid center is a comprehensive multidisciplinary team at the johNS Hopkins Children's Center dedicated to the care of pediatric patients with both benign and malignant thyroid nodules. It is a comprehensive multidisciplinary team led by myself, dr Jonathan Walsh from pediatric otolaryngology as well as dr jasmine actor from pediatric endocrinology. But the team extends far beyond that with a collaborative team of pediatric radiology genetics, um ultra stenographers, child life specialist, um social workers, all sort of dedicated and recognizing that the care of a pediatric patient, particularly when with thyroid tumors and malignancies, requires specialized care. And we're here to dedicate to do that. We see a variety of different diagnoses in the pediatric thyroid center. Uh some patients that we may see may present with low or high thyroid, they may present with the family history of thyroid diseases such as thyroid cancer. Or it may be because of a physician noting uh thyroid swelling or bumps in the neck, which may prompt further evaluation. Uh some symptoms of low or high thyroid include constipation, diarrhea, temperature intolerance whether it be hot or cold intolerance, weight gain or weight loss. And some pediatric patients you may notice delayed puberty or poor linear growth. So those may all be reasons for referrals or evaluation of the thyroid. Uh Sometimes there's also incidentally noted uh findings on a thyroid ultrasound that could cause a physician to refer you to the thyroid center and if there's ever a question. We're happy to review each case to decide when to refer to the pediatric thyroid center. We work very closely with our adult thyroid center. So we're lucky that our pediatric thyroid cancer patients are well acquainted with our adult colleagues even prior to transition time. So it makes that transition quite easy for our other diagnoses that we see in thyroid pediatric thyroid center. We work closely with the families to decide based off of diagnoses based off of family circumstances when the appropriate time is to transition, but it varies for each family referring to the johNS Hopkins Pediatric thyroid center recognizes that Children with, with thyroid nodules and malignancies necessitate specialized care and it's well known that Children with thyroid nodules there, every aspect of their care differ slightly than adults from the genetics of the tumor to the work up to our treatment decisions are management every step of the way um, has slight differences that require both specialized knowledge of the care of pediatric thyroid diseases, which our team offers but also recognizes that it's done in an environment of family and patient centered care. So we utilize and leverage the resources we have at johNS Hopkins Children's Center with social workers and child life and pediatric anesthesiologist to make every aspect from initial diagnosis and biopsy and treatment to be as seamless as possible. We also collaborate very heavily with our johNS Hopkins adult thyroid center where we're able to off for both world renowned expertise, advanced care from genetically targeted medications, trans oral thyroid surgery, radio frequency ablation, a state of the art care that is world renowned here at johNS Hopkins, and by collaboration, we offer this and extend many of these things into the pediatric realm. It also allows us to better transition your child into adult care as they age, to have a more seamless transition from pediatric care to adulthood.
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