Melanie Davies is Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Leicester and an Honorary Consultant Diabetologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, UK. She is based in the Diabetes Research Centre which is affiliated with the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Leicester. She is also the Co-Director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, which has over 150 research staff, at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. She trained at Sheffield and then completed her training at Cambridge, Ipswich and Leicester. Professor Davies’ research interests include the causes, screening, prevention, self-management and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus. She is a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator and Director of the NIHR Leicester-Loughborough Diet, Lifestyle and Physical Activity Biomedical Research Unit. Professor Davies is the Principal Investigator on a number of large global studies in the field of diabetes, obesity, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and cardiovascular disease and has served as an expert for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on a number of guideline groups. Melanie has published over 400 original articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals, such as the Lancet, NEJM and the BMJ and has over £60M of peer review grant funding. She has over 490 published abstracts and 10 book chapters, and is Co-editor of the diabetes section in the 2011 Oxford Textbook of Endocrinology and Diabetes. She was awarded the CBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honour’s List for services to diabetes research.
1. What is your current position?
I am a doctor who specialises in Diabetes (Consultant Diabetologist) based at one of the largest NHS Trust in the Country which is the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. Since 2007 I’ve also been appointed as a Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Leicester.
2. What are your proudest achievements?
My proudest achievement is receiving a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) award in the Queens New Year’s Honours list in 2016.
3. What inspires you?
As a clinical doctor I’m always looking at ways of trying to make a difference for my patients and in recent years the opportunities to undertake research and then implement that in practice to try and improve the lives of people with diabetes is my greatest inspiration.
4. What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?
The biggest obstacle to my career has been those people that you come across in important positions within organisations who lack vision and constantly look for problems rather than solutions and can be very demoralising.
5. Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?
The biggest influence on my career as actually my grandmother, she died last summer two weeks before her 100th birthday, she was widowed in her early 20’s and had to bring up two young children and juggle a number of jobs. She inspired me that you can always achieve great things if you work really hard and are very determined despite major adversity.
6. What is the best aspect about your current role?
The opportunity to work with fantastic colleagues. Myself and Professor Kamlesh Khunti head up a research and education and training team of around 140 individuals based in Leicester in the Leicester Diabetes Centre. We work with a whole a range of individuals and am very fortunate to work with some of the most talented researchers and clinicians in their fields.
7. And the worst?
The worst aspect of my role is the increasing bureaucracy and administration that comes with running a large team.
8. What are your long term goals?
My long term goal is to create a world leading institute for diabetes in Leicester in collaboration with the NHS Trust and University of Leicester and to really make Leicester known for world leading excellence in both Research Education Training and clinical care for people with diabetes.
9. If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?
If I was Prime Minister I would implement a sugar tax and use the revenue to invest in improving services for people with both diabetes and also prevention of diabetes.
10. If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?
The historical figure would actually probably be my grandfather because he was killed in his late twenties as a Merchant Naval Officer in the Second World War and I have no knowledge of him or his part of the family and it would be really nice to find out more about that side of our family.
