Professor Kamlesh Khunti CBE
SAPC ASM 2022, Tuesday 5th July, keynote in the opening session 09:00 - 10.45
Presentation: Diabetes, Covid and Recovery
Type 2 diabetes and hyperglycaemia have emerged as an important and common risk factor for COVID-19 related hospital admissions and mortality. Public health crisis such as COVID-19 pandemic poses both direct and indirect risks to people with chronic diseases such as diabetes due to disruptions in care. Globally, diabetes has also been shown to be the most disrupted chronic condition during the pandemic. Disruptions include reductions in routine care, access to emergencies, poor adherence to treatments and psychological impact. The disruptions have had a disproportionate impact in socioeconomically deprived and ethnic minority populations. It is therefore imperative that people with diabetes are prioritised during the recovery phase which should include routine care including risk factor assessment and management and self-management education programmes including referral for psychological support where appropriate. COVID-19 is also likely to have long term impact on people with diabetes and these patients need to be closely monitored in the short and medium term. The risks of complications and mortality are high in people with diabetes admitted with COVID-19 following discharge and these patients will require a more intensive follow-up. Finally, it will be important to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations for all those with diabetes.
Kamlesh Khunti is Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester, UK. He is Co-Director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre and leads a research group that is currently working on the early identification of, and interventions with, people who have cardiometabolic disease or are at increased risk of developing cardiometabolic diseases. His work has influenced national and international guidelines on the screening and management of people with diabetes. He has led a programme of work during the Covid-19 pandemic and is a member of UK Governments Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and Chair of the SAGE Ethnicity Sub-panel. Professor Khunti is also Director of the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in Applied Research Collaborations (ARC) East Midlands, Director of Centre for Ethnic Health Research and Director of The Real World Evidence Unit. He is a NIHR Senior Investigator and Principal Investigator on several major national and international studies. He has published over > 1000 peer-reviewed articles. Professor Khunti is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and is currently an advisor to the Department of Health, Member of the International KDIGO on diabetes & CKD and Clinical Advisor for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and Steering Board Member of the Primary Care Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. He is the National NIHR ARC Theme Lead for Multimorbidity and National Lead NIHR ARC lead for Ethnicity and Diversity. He is Chair of the American Diabetes Association Therapeutic Inertia Initiative and Chair of National Diabetes Audit Research Group. He is Past Chair of the Department of Health–RCGP Committee on Classification of Diabetes and is Past Chair of the NICE Guidelines on Prevention of Diabetes. He is also Honorary Visiting Professorial Fellow with Department of General Practice, University of Melbourne. In addition, he is Co-Director of the Diabetes MSc at Leicester University. He has won numerous awards nationally and internationally.