{"doi":"10.1210/clinem/dgab781","title":"Physician Specialties Involved in Thyroid Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment: Implications for Improving Health Care Disparities","abstract":"CONTEXT: Little is known about provider specialties involved in thyroid cancer diagnosis and management. OBJECTIVE: Characterize providers involved in diagnosing and treating thyroid cancer. DESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: We surveyed patients with differentiated thyroid cancer from the Georgia and Los Angeles County Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results registries (N = 2632, 63% response rate). Patients identified their primary care physicians (PCPs), who were also surveyed (N = 162, 56% response rate). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: (1) Patient-reported provider involvement (endocrinologist, surgeon, PCP) at diagnosis and treatment; (2) PCP-reported involvement (more vs less) and comfort (more vs less) with discussing diagnosis and treatment. RESULTS: Among thyroid cancer patients, 40.6% reported being informed of their diagnosis by their surgeon, 37.9% by their endocrinologist, and 13.5% by their PCP. Patients reported discussing their treatment with their surgeon (71.7%), endocrinologist (69.6%), and PCP (33.3%). Physician specialty involvement in diagnosis and treatment varied by patient race/ethnicity and age. For example, Hispanic patients (vs non-Hispanic White) were more likely to report their PCP informed them of their diagnosis (odds ratio [OR]: 1.68; 95% CI, 1.24-2.27). Patients ≥65 years (vs <45 years) were more likely to discuss treatment with their PCP (OR: 1.59; 95% CI, 1.22-2.08). Although 74% of PCPs reported discussing their patients' diagnosis and 62% their treatment, only 66% and 48%, respectively, were comfortable doing so. CONCLUSIONS: PCPs were involved in thyroid cancer diagnosis and treatment, and their involvement was greater among older patients and patients of minority race/ethnicity. This suggests an opportunity to leverage PCP involvement in thyroid cancer management to improve health and quality of care outcomes for vulnerable patients.","journal":"The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism","year":2021,"id":197644,"datarank":0.38474240361923057,"base_score":2.5649493574615367,"endowment":2.5649493574615367,"self_citation_contribution":0.38474240361923057,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.38474240361923057,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":12,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.7154,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":567140,"name":"David Reyes‐Gastelum","orcid":"0000-0003-0428-3127","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":435849,"name":"Paul Abrahamse","orcid":"0000-0001-7433-153X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":655592,"name":"Brittany Gay","orcid":"0000-0002-8116-8766","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":567141,"name":"Sarah T. Hawley","orcid":"0000-0001-5756-645X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":525849,"name":"Lauren P. Wallner","orcid":"0000-0002-1279-8617","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":771690,"name":"Debbie Chen","orcid":"0000-0001-6562-7232","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":361428,"name":"Ann S. Hamilton","orcid":"0000-0001-5898-2308","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":772167,"name":"Kevin C Ward","orcid":null,"position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":567142,"name":"Megan R. Haymart","orcid":"0000-0002-1083-1575","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":567139,"name":"Archana Radhakrishnan","orcid":"0000-0001-7689-6390","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":28,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:50:23.532351Z","pmid":"34718629","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}