ABCD Webinar: Supporting people with type 1 diabetes and an eating disorder

Emmanouela Konstantara (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Diabetes at King’s College London, an assistant psychologist at the type 1 diabetes and disordered eating (T1DE) service in King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and an assistant psychologist supporting group sensorimotor psychotherapy sessions at the trauma and dissociation service in the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM). She is also the chair of the Guildford diabetes support group for young adults and a digital helpline advisor for Beat (the UK’s leading eating disorder charity).

Emmanouela’s PhD aims to define eating disorders in type 1 diabetes. She has completed her MSc in Health Psychology and has worked for several years as a researcher in chronic illnesses including diabetes, cancer, and multiple sclerosis. Before starting her PhD, she discovered a new love for digital health while working as a Research Assistant at the Primary Care and Population Health department in University College London. In the future, she hopes to develop digital health interventions that support people living with type 1 diabetes and eating disorders.

Dr Helen Partridge trained at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical school, London. After completion of specialist training in Wessex she completed a clinical fellowship in Advanced diabetes technologies and therapeutics at University of Toronto, Canada. She was appointed as a Consultant in Diabetes at Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital in 2013 and is also a visiting fellow at Bournemouth University.

Dr Partridge is lead for the insulin pump service, renal diabetes service and young persons’ diabetes service. She is also lead for the Bertie structured education course and led on the development of the award winning, QISMET accredited Bertieonline (www.bertieonline.org.uk). She has an active interest in research and innovation in type 1 diabetes and is clinical lead in the ComPASSION project working with colleagues in the eating disorders service to support people with type 1 diabetes and an eating disorder.

In her current role as NIHR Clinician Scientist, Dr Marietta Stadler runs a 6 years research project to develop a complex intervention for people with type 1 diabetes and disordered eating (STEADY), together with a multidisciplinary team of diabetes and mental health care professionals. The STEADY project benefits from collaborations with the Diabetes Psychiatry and Psychology group (led by Prof Khalida Ismail), IDEO (Dr David Hopkins), the South London and the Maudesley Eating disorders Unit (Prof Janet Treasure) and KCL department of Adult Nursing (Prof Glenn Robert). Dr Marietta Stadler completed her Internal Medicine Specialist and Diabetologist training in Austria, conducted the national insulin pump audit and authored Austria’s therapy guidelines for insulin pumps. Dr Stadler’s research in the field of Type 1 Diabetes (focussing on the reversibility of pathophysiological features after pancreas transplantation, the epidemiology of late complications, diabetes technology, hypoglycaemia) resulted in a higher research degree (Habilitation, venia docendi). Dr Stadler joined the King’s College London (KCL) Diabetes Research Group as an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Diabetes in 2013 and was awarded an NIHR Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2018. She also completed a UK Certificate of Completion of Training in Endocrinology and Diabetes.