Winners

Dr. Pam Brown and Jane Diggle
Specialist Diabetes Nurse Practitioner in West Yorkshire (Jane Diggle), GP in Swansea (Pam Brown)
Editors-in-Chief, Diabetes & Primary Care journal and Primary Care Diabetes & Obesity Society

Summary

Jane Diggle is a Specialist Diabetes Nurse Practitioner in West Yorkshire. Pam Brown is a GP in Swansea. Between them, they have been Editors-in-Chief of the Diabetes & Primary Care journal for 10 years. During this time, they have revolutionised the journal, transitioning from the long-form prose typical of most academic publications to short, practical materials that truly suit their busy primary care audience, including How-to guides, At-a-glance factsheets and Diabetes Distilled research summaries. In addition to their journal work, they have delivered face-to-face and online education to thousands of healthcare professionals across the UK and Republic of Ireland through their speaking engagements, ensuring that primary care professionals are kept up to date with the latest evidence and guidelines in diabetes and obesity management. It is difficult to think of anyone else who has contributed more to so much free to access diabetes education in this country.

Reason for Nomination

Between them, Jane and Pam have been at the helm of the Diabetes & Primary Care journal since 2015, during which time they have revolutionised the journal, transitioning from the long-form prose typical of most academic publications to short, practical materials that truly suit their busy primary care audience. To name a few, they have developed the “How to” series, the “At-a-glance factsheets”, “Prescribing pearls” and the “Conference over coffee” brief meeting reports. Since 2020, Pam has also been Editor of Diabetes Distilled (first alongside Dr Kevin Fernando and then later solo), writing summaries of the latest key diabetes research, and their take-home points for practice, every fortnight. Both understand, from personal experience, the enormous pressures faced by primary care staff, and so they have strived to create resources that are as accessible as possible, and which readers will want to refer to over and over again. Journal articles are published weekly, all free to access, and Pam and Jane provide input and advice on all of them – when they are not doing the writing themselves, as they so often are! Although, mostly should acknowledge their contribution to the journal, in addition to this, they have delivered face-to-face and online education to thousands of healthcare professionals across the UK and Republic of Ireland through speaking at conferences and webinars, ensuring that primary care professionals are kept up to date with the latest evidence and guidelines in diabetes and obesity management. Both have spent hours, days and weeks creating and updating free e-Learning modules for the PCDO Society and other organisations, including The Six Steps to Insulin Safety and, in the last year, new modules on continuous glucose management (Jane) and obesity management (Pam). Indeed, both have served on the PCDO Society’s Committee since 2010, with Jane previously serving as co-Vice-Chair and Pam recently rejoining to lead the Society’s outputs on obesity and lifestyle medicine. Finally, both continue to serve as Tutors on the iheed/University of Warwick’s Postgraduate Diploma and MSc courses in diabetes care. Pam and Jane are both so dedicated to supporting their fellow healthcare professionals and improving diabetes care and outcomes, and difficult to think of any others who have contributed so much, free to access, educational material for diabetes healthcare professionals.