Associate Professor Neale Cohen – How technology is changing the management of Type 1 diabetes

Speaker

Associate Professor Neale Cohen MBBS FRACP (The Baker Institute)

Abstract

Type 1 diabetes has traditionally been managed with multiple daily injections of insulin in association with frequent blood glucose monitoring. Fluctuations in blood glucose levels and insulin requirements are a constant source of difficulty and anxiety for patients, making this the most difficult chronic illness to manage on a daily basis. Technological changes in insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitoring and artificial pancreas systems have developing rapidly, and are providing patients with improved outcomes including increased time in normal glucose range, reduced hypoglycaemic episodes, and improved quality of life. In the next few years fully closed loop systems will come into use which will allow patients to manage their diabetes without the constant fear of hyper and hypoglycaemia.

Speaker bio

Associate Professor Neale Cohen is an endocrinologist and current Director of Clinical Diabetes at The Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne. He graduated from Monash University in 1984 doing post graduate training at the Alfred Hospital, the International Diabetes Institute and the Austin Hospital and attained his specialty status in endocrinology in 1992. He has worked in senior management at the International Diabetes Institute, and now The Baker Institute, since 2007. He oversees a number of diabetes services located in central Melbourne, Footscray, Central Australia, and telehealth services to regional Victoria.

He is head of the Diabetes Clinical Research group at The Baker with research focus in technology and management of Type 1 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes therapeutics, and indigenous diabetes. His work in Central Australia has involved regular travel to remote communities over the past ten years, and development of novel therapies and models of care to improve outcomes for patients with diabetes. Current university positions held are Monash University, Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine, and University of Queensland Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy.