Endocrine Abstracts

Dr Rachel Besser BSc MBBS (Hons) MRCPCH PhD, is a consultant in paediatric endocrinology at Oxford Children’s Hospital, and Honorary senior clinical lecturer at the University of Oxford, working with both the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics. She came to Oxford in 2016 and was Clinical Lead between 2016–2018, and is now Research and Audit lead for the department. Rachel splits her job between clinical diabetes and diabetes research. She runs clinics for children with type 1 diabetes aged under 5 years, and Transition (17–19y) in Oxford, and sees paediatric patients of all ages in between. Rachel has published 3 books on paediatric diabetes; Diabetes Through the Looking Glass, published in 2009, and still in print, is endorsed by JDRF and Diabetes UK, and won the Best New Health Care book for the General Reader by the Society of Authors. In it, Rachel shares narratives from over 100 children and adults with type 1 diabetes, and their parents, using their testimonials to explain to the reader what it feels like to live with type 1 diabetes from the child’s perspective, navigating life’s journey, including the healthcare system. As such, Rachel is an expert in understanding diabetes from both the patient and health care professional’s perspective. Rachel oversees 10 collaborative and original paediatric research studies in Oxford.