Speakers

Dr Ruben Willemsen is a Consultant in Paediatric Diabetes and Endocrinology and the Clinical Lead for the Paediatric Diabetes Service at the Royal London Children’s Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust. He graduated in Medicine from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands in 2002. He obtained his PhD in paediatric endocrinology in 2008 (‘Small at Birth’; Cardiovascular and metabolic health of subjects born SGA and/or preterm and effects of growth hormone treatment) at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. After completing his general paediatric training in 2013 in the Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, he worked as an Academic Clinical Lecturer at Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the University of Cambridge. Alongside completing his training in paediatric endocrinology and diabetes, he conducted a multi-centre study on the use of dried blood spots to measure C-peptide in children and adolescents with a recent diagnosis of type 1 diabetes. This approach to measure and track β-cell function in patients with a recent diagnosis of type 1 diabetes has been incorporated in a big European research collaborative (INNODIA; www.innodia.eu), and in various clinical trials. He is vice-chair for the NEL CYP Diabetes Network and the SEC and London CYP Diabetes Partnership Board.