Editorial Team

Sophie Harris MBBCh, BSc, MRCP (D&E) Healthcare Professional

Affiliations: King’s College London, Health Innovation Network

Sophie Harris is a diabetes and endocrinology doctor training in south London. She is currently working on a PhD project looking at how diabetes education could be made more accessible. She is interested in reducing inequalities in healthcare, making it possible to provide the best possible care nationally from the day of diagnosis. Sophie is interested in self-care, technology and diabetes education.

Connect: @sophiehampon

Mike Kendall Type 1 Diabetes

Mike has been living with type 1 diabetes for over 25 years and currently uses a Medtronic 640G insulin pump and occasionally (when he can afford it) a Libre continuous sensor. He believes in individualised care, carb counting, diabetes gadgets and geekery and tries not to let diabetes get in the way of anything important.

When not pretending to be his own pancreas, Mike can be found enjoying food, family and faith; going for walks with his very hairy dog and noodling around on a guitar.

Connect: @everydayupsdwns  www.everydayupsanddowns.co.uk

Pratik Choudhary Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Diabetes

Dr Pratik Choudhary is Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Diabetes at King’s College London. He graduated from Indore University in India, and his MD thesis was the UK hypoglycemia study evaluating the epidemiology of hypoglycemia in type 2 diabetes.

He moved to King’s College London in 2005, and has been involved with the type 1 service with a particular interest in patients with problematic hypoglycemia. He is lead for the type 1 service and also diabetes lead for the islet and pancreas transplant programs.

He has a special clinical interest in the epidemiology of hypoglycaemia and the management of patients with problematic hypoglycaemia, with clinical and research programmes involving education, psychology and technology. He has been involved with DAFNE-HART, REPOSE and now with the DAFNE+ research programs. His other research interests include the investigation of mechanisms of hypoglycaemia unawareness, including the use of neuroimaging to explore brain responses to hypoglycaemia and studies developing psychological and pharmacological interventions to improve or restore hypoglycaemia awareness.

He has a keen interest in the use of new technology and social media in diabetes, and has been involved in studies of new technologies such as new pumps and sensors.

He is Associate Editor for Diabetic Medicine and reviewer for Diabetes UK, Diabetes, Diabetes Care and has written editorials in JAMA, Lancet and Diabetes.

Connect: @drpratikc

Partha KarAssociate National Clinical Director, Diabetes, NHS England

Consultant Diabetes & Endocrinology. Partha describes himself as a specialist, not an expert - aiming to improve T1 diabetes care-one step at a time. His main passion centres around Type 1 diabetes and he is an active user of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and writes a successful blog. He was instrumental in developing the Super Six model of diabetes care.

A recent world wide study has shown him to be one of the most influential and engaged HCP in diabetes across 125 countries and he has been named as one of the 12 social media pioneers in the HSJ and Nursing Times Social Media Pioneers list.

Connect: @parthaskar  nhssugardoc.blogspot.co.uk

Kev Winchcombe Diabetes Dad

Kev is an IT geek during the week and enjoys cycling, surfing and travelling when time allows, but above everything he is proud to call himself a Diabetes Dad. His daughter Amy was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 2010 at the age of 10.

An active member of the Diabetes Online Community on Twitter/Facebook, he is also a peer supporter with last year's QiC finalists Sugarbuddies. Through his cycling Kev has raised thousands for JDRF and INPUT, recently organising 30 Diabetes Dads to cycle Nightrider, raising over £18,000.

In January 2015 Kev became very involved with the DIY medical tech solution Nightscout when he was one of the first in the UK to build an xDrip device. Kev, his daughter and colleagues from the Nightscout UK support team have gone on to give many presentations to Doctors, Professors, HCPs, JDRF, Diabetes UK and national conferences and education days.

Connect: @oceantragic  circles-of-blue.winchcombe.org/