The Future of Thyroid Eye Disease Care: Early Diagnosis and Precision

Earlier diagnosis and more personalized treatment strategies are expected to define the next phase of thyroid eye disease care.

In this video, Sonalika Khachikian, MD, an endocrinologist at Monument Health Hospital in South Dakota, highlights the current diagnostic delays many patients experience before reaching a clinician experienced in TED management and emphasizes the importance of education to improve early recognition of ocular symptoms.

Broader implementation of guideline-driven screening for all patients with thyroid disease may facilitate earlier intervention, alongside aggressive modification of risk factors such as smoking and thyroid dysfunction. Khachikian anticipates that targeted biologic therapies will increasingly be used earlier in the disease course to prevent irreversible structural changes, potentially reducing the need for surgical intervention in some patients.

She concludes by envisioning a precision medicine paradigm in which clinical phenotype, biomarkers, and patient preferences guide therapy selection. Multidisciplinary collaboration and patient engagement will remain essential to achieving durable outcomes as the TED treatment landscape continues to evolve.