About me:

Rob is an associate Professor of Diabetes at the University of Exeter and an Honorary Consultant Physician at Musgrove Park Hospital Taunton.

At Musgrove park hospital Rob is the Clinical lead for obesity. In this role he has overseen the development of one of the largest multidisciplinary obesity services in the country. This is a holistic service offering specialised dietary and exercise programs, drug therapy and bariatric surgery as well as running clinics for people with eating disorders and complications post surgery. In recognition of this service Taunton has been designated an International Centre of Excellence for Bariatric Surgery, one of only 2 European centres to achieve this status. Rob also runs specialist adult, adolescent and paediatric sports clinics to give advice to sports men, women and children who have Type 1 diabetes.

At the University Rob concentrates on conducting clinical studies to determine the best ways to prevent and manage Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. He has over 25 years experience of running clinical trials. These trials range from first in man studies to very large RCTs. Past clinical trials that he has conducted include: the Early ACTID study the world largest diet and exercise study in patients with Newly diagnosed Type 2 diabetes: the STAMP 2 study which examined the role that sedentary time had in the metabolic characteristics of patients with Type 2 diabetes; and the EXTOD study, the first study to examine whether regular exercise can protect beta cell function in patients with newly diagnosed Type 1 diabetes. He has also been involved in a number of investigator lead CTIMP studies in this area these include the first in man study to look at the effect of blocking 11B-HSD on insulin resistance in patients with Type 2 diabetes and a study to examine the safety and immune effects of immunotherapy with proinsulin peptide in new-onset type 1 diabetes.

Interests:

Currently rob’s research is concentrated in three main areas

1. Understanding how better to support patients with Type 1 diabetes to exercise – this includes conducting studies to determine the best advice to give as well as development of education material to upskill patients and health care workers.
2. Trying to develop and validate a brief dietary intervention that can be used in primary care.
3. Determining the best surgical option for obese patients with different morbidities.

Qualifications:

• 1991 MB ChB, University of Birmingham
• 1995 MRCP UK
• 2002 CCST Diabetes, Endocrinology and General Internal Medicine
• 2004 PhD, Unversity of Edinburgh
• 2014 FRCP UK