United Through Diabetes 2024 - Guest Speakers

Professor Partha Kar is the Type 1 Diabetes & Technology lead for NHS England and co-lead of the Getting it Right First Time (Diabetes) and Consultant, Diabetes & Endocrinology in Portsmouth He has led the expansion of technology in Type 1 Diabetes- namely universal use of Flash Glucose/CGM; CGM in T1D pregnancy along with use of online digital self-management platforms. He has also led on working with NICE ensuring wide access to Hybrid Closed Loops (HCL) this technology (via enabling real world data collection)- and at present is leading on a 5-year implementation plan on HCL. This has made the NHS one of the pioneers globally regards access to technology in those living with Type 1 Diabetes His other work has involved introduction of frailty into Quality Of Framework (QoF) treatment targets, Diabulimia pilot projects in the NHS; championing “Language Matters” and helping to create an overview of Diabetes care in Primary Care Networks. He is one of the leading users of social media in diabetes care- and writes a monthly blog for the British Medical Journal.

Dr Mayank Patel has worked as a Consultant in Diabetes and Acute Medicine at University Hospital Southampton since 2008. He is also an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Southampton. With a keen interest in diabetes education, he also contributes to the medical undergraduate and postgraduate diabetes training curriculum, as well as regularly delivering diabetes education sessions to patients, public and other healthcare professionals in primary and secondary care. He co developed ‘Microguide DiAppbetes’, a smartphone application to help Healthcare Professionals managing people with diabetes. He also co developed ‘Type 1’, a diabetes comic book series freely available online. In 2015, he was named as the Quality in Care awards ‘Outstanding Educator in Diabetes’. In 2020, he was a co-winner of the Quality in Care Awards Diabetes ‘Diabetes Education Programmes’ for ‘Understanding Insulin’, a globally freely available online insulin course.

Paul is Director of the DRWF Oxford Human Islet Isolation Facility and the Oxford Islet Transplant Programme. He is Professor of Paediatric Surgery at the University of Oxford, a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon, and Clinical Lead for the NHS Thames Valley and Wessex Surgery in ODN. He leads an internationally-recognised research group encompassing bench-to-bedside research, with the ultimate goal of reversing Type 1 diabetes in children. He was Chief Investigator of the ITAD Paediatric Immunotherapy trial and is a PI for the Vertex Stem-Cell Islet Trials. Paul has held key national and international leadership positions. He was Chair of the NHSBT UK Islet Transplant Steering Group and sits on the Board of the European Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (EPITA) and is a Past-President of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (IPITA). He sits on several Research Advisory and Editorial Boards. He has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in recognition of his work.

Dr Bernadette Adeyileka-Tracz (MPharm, PhD, Exec MBA) is a registered pharmacist and the Executive Director of Diabetes Africa, a non-profit organisation with the mission of eradicating diabetes and its related diseases in people of Black, African, and African Caribbean heritage. Bernadette has experience across multiple sectors and industries in healthcare, including medical affairs management roles in the pharmaceutical industry. Alongside a professional interest in diabetes and related diseases, Bernadette’s passion comes from the lived experience of her family members who are living with T1D, T2D, and its subtypes.

Rob Andrews is an Associate Professor at the University of Exeter, an Honorary Consultant Physician at Musgrove Park Hospital Taunton. He is one of the co-founders of EXTOD, a group that aims to provide evidence-based support for people with type 1 diabetes to undertake safe and effective exercise, and to enjoy its associated health benefits. At the University he leads a group that researches how to encourage and support patients with diabetes to exercise. At Musgrove park hospital he runs specialist adult, adolescent and paediatric sports clinics to give advice to sports men, women and children who have Type 1 diabetes.

Prof Katharine Barnard is a Visiting Professor and internationally renowned expert who specializes in the psychosocial impact and management of illness and long-term conditions. She led the only team to be awarded FDA MDDT qualification for a patient-reported outcome measure in diabetes (INSPIRE). Katharine Chairs the FDA RESCUE Global Collaborative Community to reduce incidents of self-injury and suicide in diabetes. As PI or co-Investigator on several grants, her research portfolio spans psychosocial aspects of diabetes management, health technology assessment, translational medicine and impact of technologies on the lives of people with diabetes.

Peter Davies was born in Kenya in 1954. Whilst in the UK in 1956, Pete was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 2. His first consultant was Dr. R.D. Lawrence, a world leader in the field, who nearly died from Type 1 diabetes himself. He was amongst the first in the UK to receive insulin in May 1923. Thanks to Dr. Lawrence's informed advice and his parents' positivity, Pete's diagnosis did not prevent the family from returning to East Africa. He has completed several long-distance hikes of around 100 miles and summitted Kilimanjaro in 2014. Beginning October 2nd this year, Pete has organised and will be embarking upon another significant fundraising activity. He will definitely be telling you all about this exciting challenge!  Pete's parents and Dr. Lawrence firmly believed that Type 1 diabetes should never prevent anyone from achieving their dreams.

Renuka Dias is a Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist working at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital and is an Honorary Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Birmingham. She is the Clinical Lead for Paediatric Diabetes and Lead for the National Highly Specialised Service for Wolfram Syndrome (Children) in Birmingham. Her clinical research interests include screening and management for early Type 1 Diabetes and health inequalities in Type 1 Diabetes.

Louise Goff is Professor of Nutrition Science at Leicester Diabetes Research Centre. Louise's research focuses on the role of nutrition in the development, prevention, and management of type 2 diabetes. Louise currently leads an inter-disciplinary research programme focused on health inequalities in minority ethnic groups, working with communities of African heritage. In 2015, Louise was awarded an NIHR Fellowship to undertake a mixed methods programme of work to develop, using participatory co-design methods, and evaluate the feasibility of a culturally tailored diabetes self-management education and support programme for adults of African heritage. The programme, called ‘HEAL-D’, has won innovation awards, including the 2019 Diabetes Quality in Care award. Louise has recently been awarded a 4-year NIHR grant for a multicentre trial of ‘HEAL-D’ to evaluate its clinical and cost effectiveness.

Sanjay works with Sarah and the team at DRWF as an associate with various ongoing projects. From his career he has experience in helping organisations understand and match their solution with opportunities, providing insight and access to stakeholders, enabling solution providers to be informed and develop their strategy. The primary consideration is to improve patient outcomes. With over 25 years of experience across the healthcare industry and third sector Sanjay utilises his knowledge, network and experiences to add value to clients working within multiple med-tech and digital health areas as well as therapy areas including Diabetes, Behaviour change, Neurology (Migraine), Dermatology, Respiratory, Remote patient monitoring and screening. Outside of work Sanjay is busy with his family and plays golf regularly. He is a Level 2 qualified swimming judge, whilst also a member of the organising committee of a golf society and volunteer at his local community.

Helen is a registered dietitian and Director of The Lifestyle Club (TLC), for the charity Public Health Collaboration. She followed careers in Information Technology consulting then secondary school education before completing an MSc in Human Nutrition in 2020.  Having seen the devastation type 2 diabetes caused her dad, she is determined to raise awareness of the possibility of remission through diet and lifestyle approaches; empowering patients through quality education then supporting them to achieve their health goals. TLC is a health coaching service, available to Primary Care, for patients with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes. TLC won the silver Primary Care Project of the Year at the HSJ Partnership Awards this year for its innovation and impact on patient outcomes.

Barbara has been a Diabetes Specialist Nurse since 1996. Her role includes delivering specialist diabetes care at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust). Her interests include the complex type 1 diabetes service; leading on the continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (pump)/ hybrid closed loop service and an educator for the structured education program DAFNE (Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating). She supports research including the Extod studies and Extod education, part of a multi professional team delivering an innovative structured education programme for people with type 1 diabetes and exercise. Barbara is also part of education team involved in the ELSA study (Early Surveillance for Autoimmune Diabetes). Barbara is passionate about equality and equity and works in collaboration with Diabetes UK and Diabetes Africa in developing support groups, education and conferences for people with diabetes in the African-Caribbean community.

Diabetologist and Clinical Lead for Type 1, Transition and Young Adult Diabetes, Newham Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust. Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Queen Mary University London.

Marion Mackonochie is Herbal Science Manager at Pukka Herbs. She is a qualified medical herbalist and researcher passionate about investigating and communicating the health benefits of herbs and spices. At Pukka, Marion manages a programme of research collaborating with academic institutions to look at how herbal teas can contribute to wellbeing. This has led on to policy work and the launch of Pukka’s Rainbow Paper, which is aiming to raise awareness and introduce herbs and spices onto UK government healthy eating guidelines. Marion has qualifications in pharmacology & physiology, herbal medicine and phytochemistry, and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Herbal Medicine.

Daniel is an award-winning diabetes advocate and host of the award-winning The Talking Type 1 podcast. Daniel has been living with type 1 diabetes for over 28 years. Daniel has served as a patient representative on the NICE guidelines committee that made significant changes to the availability of glucose sensors to people living with type 1 diabetes. Daniel has worked with many organisations including Diabetes Africa, Abbott, Insulet, Diabetes UK, Digibete and NHS England. You can find Daniel on Instagram at @t1d_dan.

David Strain is an Associate Professor in Cardiometabolic in the Diabetes and Vascular Research Centre at the University of Exeter Medical School, with an expertise in microvascular structure and function. Clinically, he runs a community service for the older adult with diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease, and works as an in-patient consultant.. His main focus is the health of older adults with diabetes; ensuring the right patient gets the right treatment. This includes research exploring the mechanism that some medications, specifically the SGLT-2 inhibitors and GLP-1 analogues, give benefits for people with diabetes, heart disease and renal failure beyond their effect on sugar and blood pressure. The hope is we can identify those who would benefit most before arising. He has performed the only study to date demonstrating the feasibility of individualizing targets for older adults across Europe. As a result, he led the stakeholders group that produced the UK guidelines for the management of older adults with type 2 diabetes that informed the new UK NICE guidance and modification to the Quality Outcome Framework.

Bernadette (Berni) Warren was diagnosed with Diabetic Macular Oedema 13 years ago. Having lost her job in 2012 due to sight loss she looked for volunteering opportunities to share her experience of diabetes and sight loss from a patient’s perspective. To date she has worked alongside, ophthalmologists, optometrists, students and pharmaceutical companies as well as sharing her knowledge on Radio 4. She has also worked alongside charities such as DRWF, Diabetes UK, RNIB and The Macular Society (for which she leads a national DMO support group on Zoom). She is an expert patient for NICE and a Lay member of the Royal College of Ophthalmology. This year she has presented at both DUKPC24 as well as the Diabetic Eye Screening Conference 2024. Through her work Bernadette has kept up to date with the new treatments being used for DMO which is leading to a far more positive outcome for many.