PCDS committee elections: Cast your vote at the 5th National Conference

Kamlesh Khunti is Professor of Diabetes and Vascular Medicine and Head of Division of General Practice and Primary Health Care, University of Leicester. He leads a research group in the Department of Health Sciences that is undertaking research into the early identification and intervention in people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. He chairs the Department of Health Royal College of General Practitioners Committee on Classification of Diabetes. He was a founding member of the PCDS and is Secretary of the Primary Care Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).

Julie Widdowson has been a qualified nurse for 24 years. From 1990 to 2000 she worked as a practice nurse, and it was during this time that her involvement with chronic disease management began. She developed nurse-led clinics for diabetes and coronary heart disease, working closely with a practice-based multidisciplinary team. Julie also sits on the Diabetes Survey Advisory Group at the Care Quality Commission. Since being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes herself 9 years ago, Julie’s understanding of patient issues has increased. She is an advocate for self-management and patient education so that people with diabetes can lead a long and healthy life.

Francesca Arundel has been a Practice Nurse in diabetes since 1993. She is now Lead Diabetes Nurse in Chichester. Francesca’s main interests in diabetes are structured group education, cardiovascular risk and erectile dysfunction. She runs education sessions, one of which is within a practice. At this session she sees people with diabetes every 3 months as an alternative to the annual review and has found that this has been more effective than standard care – as well as much more fun!

Dr Martin Hadley-Brown is a GP in Thetford, Norfolk. As well as local diabetes activities, he is a clinical teacher for the University of Cambridge. Martin was a member of the Professional Advisory Council at Diabetes UK until 2006, he was a founding member of PCDS and became Chair in 2005. He served on the NICE Guidelines Development Group for type 2 diabetes and the newer agents update published in 2008 and 2009, respectively. He is very keen to continue championing the care of people with type 2 diabetes and hopes to be re-elected to the PCDS committee.

Nigel Campbell is a GP in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, and has been been interested in diabetes for many years, at various times working in hospital as well as running a diabetes clinic. He has recently taken up the post as Chairman of South East Commissioning Group and has diabetes care high on his agenda in that role. Nigel wishes to represent the views of all those involved in diabetes care in Ireland.