“Celebrating Excellence: Emeritus Professor Stephanie Amiel Honored with Damehood in King’s New Year Awards”

Professor Dame Stephanie Amiel, who works within the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, played a crucial role in establishing the Dose Adjustment for Normal Eating (DAFNE) patient education initiative, decreasing diabetes emergencies and the expenses associated with emergency care by over 60%, leading to a more cost-effective standard of treatment throughout the UK, Ireland, and beyond.

She facilitated islet transplantation within the NHS to assist individuals with type 1 diabetes and severe hypoglycaemia, making King’s College Hospital the inaugural centre in the UK to successfully conduct a transplant for a patient in the national programme. Her guidance of the diabetes centre at King’s College Hospital has turned it into a globally recognized centre of excellence, with an emphasis on the connection between mental and physical health in the context of diabetes.

Professor Dame Stephanie’s research on the influence of ethnicity has shed light on elements of diabetes care in minority populations, specifically focusing on African and Caribbean communities in London. She has chaired the guideline development group for type 1 diabetes at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), influencing the contemporary approach to diabetes care in the 21st century.

In 2021, Professor Dame Stephanie received the Diabetes UK Robert Turner Award for Research Impact, recognizing her significant contributions to transforming our comprehension of hypoglycaemia – commonly referred to as low blood sugar – as well as the implementation of structured diabetes education.

Additionally, Professor Dame Stephanie is one of the founding members of the International Hypoglycaemia Study Group, which initially articulated the now widely accepted definitions of hypoglycaemia in the realm of diabetes. She has collaborated with Diabetes UK, leading its Strategic Research Advisory group for several years; worked with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (currently Breakthrough T1D), and participated in the EU IMI HypoRESOLVE project, aiming to clarify hypoglycaemia in relation to its effects on patients’ lives. Currently, she is involved in CLEAR, a multicentre investigation into how new technologies affect hypoglycaemia in diabetes, backed by the US National Institutes of Health.

By supporting emerging Diabetes researchers, Professor Dame Stephanie has served as a mentor in the European Federation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) research mentorship initiative and has been a member of its panel.