Diabetes Professional Care conference unveils speaker line-up for 2016

Diabetes Professional Care 2016, the leading free-to-attend two-day CPD accredited conference and exhibition has unveiled its speaker line-up for 2016, which includes keynote presentations from NHS England and The Diabetes Think Tank. The educational conference, which takes place on 16 & 17 November at London’s Olympia, will see diabetes experts and healthcare professionals share insight across an array of critical subjects.

Karen Richardson, Conference Director at Diabetes Professional Care 2016 comments:

After the huge success of last year’s conference programme, we wanted to make sure we kept the momentum going for 2016. We will host a multi-stream programme, covering the full diabetes spectrum from technologies, diagnostics and prevention to commissioning, pediatrics and primary & secondary care.

Keynote Sessions

For the first time ever, Jonathan Valabhji, National Clinical Director for Obesity & Diabetes at NHS England and Dr Partha Kar, Associate National Clinical Director for Diabetes at NHS England will take to the stage together to present the show’s first keynote session. Valabhji will discuss ‘Diabetes and the NHS in England in November 2016’, while Kar will conclude by looking at ‘The art of the possible'.

In a major show coup, Beverley Bryant, Director of Strategic Systems at NHS England, will be discussing how new technologies are going to change the face of diabetes. Driven by the need to innovate Bryant has been crucial in the movement towards making the NHS paperless, looking at the transformative powers that technology has to offer. For those who rely on technology or feel more faith should be put into it, this session is not to be missed.

Samantha Jones, Director, New Models of Care at NHS England will also be presenting on day one, analysing new models of care in diabetes, whilst Pauline Latham MP, Chair of the Diabetes Think Tank will feature in the afternoon session on day two.

Dedicated Streams

Within the Primary & Secondary Care stream Debbie Hicks, Nurse Consultant – Diabetes from Enfield & Haringey Mental Health Trust & Co-chair - TREND-UK and Chair of FIT UK, will take a look at the learning curves experienced within diabetes care since the seventies. Hicks will also be running an interactive session on lipohypertrophy, which will see patients being treated live in one of the theatres by Hicks, educating visitors on how to identify this accumulation of fat underneath the surface of the skin, caused by multiple injections.

Anyone interested in diabetes and ethnicity will not want to miss Dr Sophie Eastwood, Clinical Research Fellow, Institute of Cardiovascular Science at University College London, analysing Type 2 diabetes in ethnic minority groups. This presentation will be closely followed by Dr Kesar Sadra, GP at Manor Park Medical Centre, Slough, who will talk about the practical challenges of diabetes in the Asian population.

As part of the diabetes technology and diagnostics stream Dr David Strain, Senior Clinical Lecturer at Exeter University, will examine the role of Ketosis - the condition characterised by raised levels of ketone bodies in the body, associated with abnormal fat metabolism and diabetes mellitus.

Technology has become an increasingly popular stream with the visitors, with cutting edge innovation on show as well as the very latest thinking. Dr Partha Kar, Associate National Director for Diabetes at NHS England will discuss ‘Diabetes & Technology: Overhyped or a necessity?’, while Sue Wales will explore how using innovations and technology can effectively improve diabetes control.

Those looking for an update on the first wave of the NHS diabetes prevention programme, need look no further than Dr Jim O’Brien, National Programme Director, NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme at Public Health England. Building on this prevention theme, Dr David Haslam, GP & Chair of the National Obesity Forum will analyse just how big the diabetes problem is and look at how best to address prevention.

Richardson concludes:

We want our conference to be the forum where new ideas are born, understanding is deepened, solutions are progressed and hot topics like DKA, Monogenic Diabetes and Biosimilars are addressed. Our focus is clear – we want to increase the empowerment of patients and create better patient outcomes.