Imperial diabetes researcher named as one of London’s leading health influencers

Dr Shivani Misra has been featured as part of the Evening Standard’s annual Progress 1000 list of influential Londoners.

The 2018 list recognises 1,000 leading London-based figures across a range of industries, from comedy to social media to tech. Dr Misra, Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London and Consultant in Metabolic Medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, was one of 18 key individuals featured in the list’s Health category. 

Dr Misra’s work focuses on classifying types of diabetes in those with young-onset diabetes from different ethnic groups. To investigate the question of ethnicity’s impact on diabetes presentation and type, Dr Misra set up the MY DIABETES study in 2013, funded by the Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation with recruitment support from the NIHR Clinical Research Network.

The study currently runs at 40 different sites across England, and has recruited over 1,400 people from South Asian, African-Caribbean or White ethnic backgrounds. One of the key interim findings from the study, presented at an Academic Health Science Centre (AHSC) seminar series event earlier this year, was that genetic forms of diabetes are being misdiagnosed in people from ethnic minority groups.

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Commenting on her success, Dr Misra said: “I am so happy and grateful that the work we’re undertaking to address misclassification of diabetes types in people from different ethnic groups has gained recognition in this way.”

“The success of the MY DIABETES study is really down to all the people with diabetes who have given up their time to participate, and the recruiting sites across England who work so hard. As an early career clinician scientist, I am extremely proud to have been in the Progress 1000 list and I hope with the support of my fantastic clinical and research colleagues we can continue to do important work in this area.”