Endocrine Abstracts

Diabetes and endocrinology is a specialty in which we study the fascinating area of the physiology of hormones, which can influence the regulation of every organ in our body. Understanding how hormones are dysregulated in pathological states leads to improved diagnosis and treatment of these conditions. Rapid progress has been made in the field and there are now many classical endocrine systems, which are well established that we have all learnt about as undergraduate trainees. However there is still much to learn about these biological systems, which could lead to an improvement in the lives of patients with endocrine disorders. In addition there are potentially hundreds of hormones that remain undiscovered and the panoply of novel tools now available for scientific discovery means that understanding these novel hormone systems could result in improved treatments for patients. This highlights that our specialty is highly academic and trainees in diabetes and endocrinology should receive training in research in order to meet these needs of our specialty and our patients. In an ideal world with no funding limitations a dedicated period of research time would be built into every diabetes and endocrinology trainee’s clinical programme.

In this talk I will highlight the potential research opportunities available to trainees at all stages of their career. Over the last decade health researchers have observed a transformation in the landscape for training and research opportunities through the new training schemes in place for all healthcare professionals. Health researchers can now have access to research training opportunities from the early pre doctoral stages of their career all the way up to Chair level and beyond. There has never been a more exciting and opportune time for diabetes and endocrinology trainees to make a difference to patient outcomes through their research.