Obesity Management National Networking Forum

Rob Andrews is an Associate Professor at the University of Exeter, an Honorary Consultant Physician at Musgrove Park Hospital Taunton and a Danish Diabetes Academy visiting Professor. He is one of the co-founders of EXTOD, a group that aims to provide evidence-based support for people with type 1 diabetes to undertake safe and effective exercise, and to enjoy its associated health benefits. 

At the University he leads a group that researches how to encourage and support patients with type 1 diabetes to exercise. Past studies include; EXTOD education a study that aims to developed and tested an education programme for people with Type 1 diabetes (with accompanying training for health care professionals to deliver this programme) to guide insulin and carbohydrate adjustment for safe exercise; Type 1 HIT a study that determined whether High intensity interval training is an efficient and effective form of exercise for people with Type 1 diabetes and EXTOD 101 a study that determined the “real world” risks and benefits of exercise in 101 adults with type 1 diabetes who are training for and running a Half Marathon 

Ongoing studies include; EXTOD education online a study that adapt the EXTOD education programme to an online programme; EXTOD education Denmark a study that aims to culturally adapt the EXTOD education programme so it can be used in Denmark; EXTOD adolescents a study that aims to develop an education programme to help encourage and support exercise in adolescents with Type 1 diabetes; and studies that aim to determine the best ways to remotely support adult and children with Type 1 diabetes to increase their everyday physical activity. 

At Musgrove park hospital as well as doing regular Diabetes and obesity clinics he runs specialist adult, adolescent and paediatric sports clinics to give advice to sports men, women and children who have Type 1 diabetes.

Irena is WM Nurse Specialist and Independent Prescriber at Musgrove Park Hospital, Somerset NHS FT. She initiates and follows up patients on injectable weight loss medications and has established clinics for genetic testing for Obesity. 

Irena is involved in research projects to improve service delivery, using real world data from clinical practice.

She sat on NICE MTAC as a specialist committee member for early value assessment: digital technologies for providing specialist weight-management service. She is a member of the National Obesity Database Steering Group. 

Irena has extensive nursing career in variety of acute clinical settings. She has made successful contribution to clinical research leading on COVID and diabetes trials and was a lead research nurse on STEP 1 trial, which aimed to assess the effect and safety of Semaglutide 2.4 mg once weekly in subjects with overweight or obesity. Despite being the smallest site in UK, their team had one of the best retention rates in the country and Irena was asked to share their success on international level. 

Claudia is a locum consultant in Diabetes & Endocrinology at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. She is the lead doctor for South East London Tier 3 weight management programme and a co-investigator for several obesity clinical trials.  Claudia is an active clinician, with expertise in managing patients with severe obesity. Her special interests are very low-calorie diets and obesity pharmacotherapy. She is also a committee member for The Association for the Study of Obesity.

Dr Sarah Appleton BSc (Hons) DClinPsy CPsychol is a Highly Specialist, Chartered Clinical Psychologist working in weight management. Sarah completed her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology at The University of Oxford and has since worked in five different weight management and bariatric services across the UK and in America.

Sarah is current the Psychology Lead for the Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust Specialist Weight Management Programme (Tier 3); Healthy Weight Clinical and Care Professional Lead for Partnership Southwark; Co-Chair of the British Psychological Society Obesity and Bariatric Network; and Founder of Bind. Weight Management – a service offering specialist psychological support to those living with excess weight.

Sarah has conducted research into weight management, nutrition and behaviour in collaboration with The University of Oxford, The University of Bristol, and Kings College London, and is an Alumni Fellow of Healthcare Improvement Leadership at NIHR ARC NWL; Imperial College London. 

Sadaf Farooqi is a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow and Professor of Metabolism and Medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK. She is an internationally leading Clinician Scientist who has made seminal contributions to understanding the genetic and physiological mechanisms that underlie obesity and its complications. The work of Sadaf Farooqi and her colleagues has fundamentally altered the understanding of how body weight is regulated. With colleagues, she discovered and characterised the first genetic disorders that cause severe childhood obesity and established that the principal driver of obesity in these conditions was a failure of the control of appetite. Her work is often cited as an exemplar of how the translation of research into the mechanisms of disease can lead to patient benefit. She has received a number of awards including the 2024 Outstanding Clinical Investigator Award from the Endocrine Society. In 2021, she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of her exceptional contribution to science. 

Dr Fallows is an experienced GP, Obesity and Lifestyle Medicine expert with qualifications in weight management, nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine. She works in NHS primary care where she has used group clinics to support people with long-term conditions and with the NHS Type-2 Diabetes "Paths to Remission Programme." She is Vice-President of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine and set up their Learning Academy, writing the first foundation course.  She has edited the soon to be published Cambridge University Press textbook on Lifestyle Medicine. Ellen teaches Lifestyle Medicine and behavioural science at Oxford University clinical school and lectures at other medical schools as well as at post-graduate training and trainer events. She is a Royal College of General Practitioners clinical advisor and representative.