As a part of our “Meet Yale Internal Medicine” series, today’s feature is on Sachin Majumdar Jr., MD, associate professor of medicine (endocrinology); and director of endocrine neoplasia and the endocrine neoplasia clinic.
Sachin Majumdar, MD is an endocrinologist who has recently established himself in the care of endocrine neoplasia, conditions affecting the thyroid, adrenal and pituitary glands.
Majumdar pursued his undergraduate degree in Nutrition at Cornell University. There, he developed an interest in metabolism, leading him to pursue his medical degree at the University of Rochester, followed by an internal medicine residency and endocrinology fellowship at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, after which he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at Yale. After about two years, he took over the role of section chief for endocrinology at Yale New Haven Health’s (YNHHS) Bridgeport Hospital, with his clinical work primarily related to diabetes and general endocrinology. At Bridgeport Hospital, he set up new endocrine clinics in diabetes, thyroid and general endocrinology, as well as an inpatient diabetes consult service. Additionally, he was also involved with the affiliated residency program where he provided teaching in endocrinology, and led clinics and inpatient rotations for residents and other students. After working in this role for 11 years, he was recruited back to Yale to lead the endocrine neoplasia program.
“I had a thyroid clinic one day of the week before, but in the position I'm spearheading now there is opportunity to do a number of new things such as starting an active surveillance program for the non-surgical management of small thyroid cancers.”
Majumdar described his interest in the emerging field of thyroid cancer surveillance, which provides an avenue for developing interesting clinical questions. Historically, patients with smaller, low risk thyroid cancers have been treated with surgery and sometimes radioactive iodine, and yet their prognosis appears excellent without these treatments. In Japan, the non-surgical management of small thyroid cancers has been ongoing for slightly over 30 years, yet there are very few centers in the United States where this is offered. After seeing some patients with small thyroid cancers who preferred a non-surgical approach, it became clear that offering a program like this would provide patients in our region a greater choice in their management options for thyroid cancer.
This thyroid cancer surveillance program, based in Smilow Cancer Hospital under the new Center of Excellence, will be led by Majumdar, along with a team of endocrinologists, radiologists, and surgeons working together through an official protocol.
“Before, in the community setting, we wouldn't feel comfortable doing that on our own because you have to have an established program and someone keeping track of patients. There needs to be a multidisciplinary team and radiology has to be set up for it. We can do all that at Yale.”
While leading the endocrine neoplasia program is his main clinical role, he is still looking to engage in other clinical interests within the larger scope of endocrinology, including in some of his previous work in metabolism.
“I'm still thinking of doing work in lipid metabolism here at Yale on a smaller scale and want to see if we can develop a lipid clinic, and then better characterize and treat people who may be genetically prone to having really high triglyceride levels, who end up with pancreatitis and get really sick.”
The Endocrinology & Metabolism Section of the Department of Internal Medicine engages in a broad range of patient care, research, and educational activities. To learn more about their work, visit Endocrinology & Metabolism.