2023 Allan Drash Clinical Fellowship Awardees
CG Delhikumar
Dr.Delhikumar is a board-certified pediatrician, passed his M.D. (Pediatric) degree with the highest score, and received the Dr.Balakrishnan endowment award. He has worked as faculty for nine years in one of the highly ranked non-profitable government institutes, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), Pondicherry, India. His daily work includes clinical care of the children, teaching, and training undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. He is also actively involved in research activities. He had published around thirty research articles in indexed journals.
Dr.Kumar is keenly interested in pediatric endocrinology and is the faculty in charge of the pediatric endocrinology follow-up clinic in his department. He has organized a pediatric endocrinology service and developed a registry. Around 400 children with endocrinological disorders are on follow-up in this clinic, which includes 110 cases with type 1 diabetes and eight patients with genetic diabetes. He has published five original research papers in endocrinology and has been involved in many ongoing research in pediatric endocrinology.
Dr.Kumar is presently working on a research project titled, “Effect of daily zinc supplementation for 12 weeks on serum thyroid auto-antibodies levels in children and adolescents with autoimmune thyroiditis-A randomized controlled trial”. He also presented a poster titled “Early Markers of Atherosclerosis in Children and Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus” at the 48th ISPAD Conference held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, on October 13-October 16.
Didem Gunes Kaya
Didem Gunes Kaya, Ph.D., is a pediatric diabetes dietitian at Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Pediatrics. She graduated from Erciyes University, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, in 2009, and she had her master's degree in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Erciyes University in 2017. She later received her doctoral degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University in 2022 (full scholarship).
She worked as a pediatric dietitian at Aydın Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Medicine between 2009 and 2019 and as a pediatric diabetes dietitian at Istanbul University Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Pediatrics, since 2019. In addition to working as a clinical dietitian, she teaches Nutrition in Pediatric Diseases at different universities. She has volunteered at many diabetes camps since the early years of her career and has had the chance to touch the lives of children with diabetes.
She has been a member of ISPAD since 2022 and was selected to the 2023 ISPAD Jenious Ambassadors and Roving Reporter's committees. She is a member of national professional associations such as the Pediatric Dietetic Association (PEDI-DER), the Diabetes Dietetic Association, the Turkish Dietetic Association (TDD), and the Clinical Enteral Parenteral Nutrition Associations (KEPAN). She volunteers on committees of national associations both to educate diabetes professionals and to improve the lives of children with diabetes. Additionally, she has articles published in international and national journals and many oral and poster presentations presented at national and international congresses.
Dr. Didem Gunes Kaya is honored to be awarded the Allan Drash Fellowship 2023. She is looking forward to observing developments in diabetes care, different forms of diabetes, nutrition education, and diabetes technologies to enhance her clinical experience further. She is excited to share her experience with her colleagues in her country to provide up-to-date, comprehensive care for children and adolescents with diabetes in Turkey.
Elena Vakali
Dr. Elena Vakali, MD, MSc, PhD(c), was born in Athens, Greece, in 1991. She knew she would pursue her dream of becoming an Endocrinologist the day she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes during her school years.
Dr. Vakali received her medical education at National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), in 2016 and soon after that she started working in Health Center of Stylida as a primary care physician until 2018, when she started her residency in Endocrinology, working in Hellenic Red Cross Hospital. In 2020, she continued in “P. & A. Kyriakou” Children’s Hospital as a Pediatric Endocrinology Resident until today. Simultaneously, she received a Master’s Degree in “Diabetes Mellitus and Obesity”, in NKUA, by completing her thesis titled “Impact Of Alpha Lipoic Acid Supplementation In Metabolic Parameters Of Patients With Prediabetes”. She started her PhD program in 2022, titled “24Hour Glucose Variability And Association With Blood Pressure Variability And Subclinical End-Organ Damage In Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus”, in NKUA.
At the same time, she is a passionate diabetes advocate, volunteering at the Diabetes Association of Athens and the Panhellenic Association for People with Diabetes. She has also been participating in IDF’s advocacy activities as a YOURAH Steering Committee Member in charge of Projects since 2020, after successfully participating in IDF’s 9th Youth Leadership Camp.
Her research interest focuses on the comorbidities of people living with Type 1 Diabetes and finding potentially new treatment targets.
Dr. Vakali is actively seeking to expand her experience in diabetes care, both as a patient advocate and as a physician, to provide the best care possible for people living with diabetes from both sides.
Emma Lucila Picasso Rivera
Emma Picasso is a pediatric endocrinologist with an unwavering dedication to Type 1 diabetes (T1D). With a decade of experience as a pediatrician and five years as a pediatric endocrinologist, her commitment to mastering T1D management remains steadfast.
She graduated from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez, as a pediatrician in 2013 and in 2018 in endocrinology.
Her interest in humanitarian medicine led her to collaborate with Doctors Without Borders on multiple projects, gaining invaluable firsthand experience in managing type 1 diabetes (T1D) within resource-limited contexts. As her career progressed, she assumed increasingly challenging roles. She collaborated in Lebanon on the Bekaa project, supervising care for 200 refugee children and adolescents with T1D. This experience solidified her commitment to ongoing learning about DT1. Back in Mexico City, she became a diabetes educator and developed knowledge in the use of technology in T1D.
Currently, in Mexico, she collaborates with the Mexican Diabetes Association on different projects to support people living with DT1, especially coordinating the medical team for “Tonalli,” their camp for children and adolescents living with DT1.
In her most recent position at EnDi Clinic, she is a pediatric endocrinologist who focuses on DT1 and the use of technology. She takes pride in her ability to adapt to different contexts and gain valuable experience.
She actively contributes to her field as a member of the DT1 working group of the Mexican Society of Nutrition and Endocrinology, the Mexican Society of Pediatric Endocrinology, and as a professor of endocrinology at UNAM.
She was associate editor of the book: Type 1 Diabetes throughout life, a book that seeks to provide useful information for first-contact health personnel.
She is particularly passionate about enhancing accessibility to diabetes-related technology for economically and socially disadvantaged individuals. She is committed to staying at the forefront of industry trends and advancements.
She is honored to be awarded the Allan Drash Fellowship 2023. She is willing to expand her knowledge of diabetes technologies to enhance her clinical experience further. She is excited to share her experience with her colleagues in Mexico and improve medical and multidisciplinary care for individuals living with DT1 in her country.
Jean Claude Katte
Dr. Njabou Katte is a Cameroonian-trained general practitioner, public health medicine specialist, and research scientist specializing in global health type 1 diabetes research in sub-Saharan Africa. He works as a research consultant with the Changing Diabetes in Children (CDiC) program in Cameroon. He is also a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Exeter.
He completed his medical training in 2011 at the University of Yaounde 1, Cameroon. He worked in one of the regional hospitals providing care to children and adolescents diagnosed with type 1 diabetes within the CDiC program. Over the years, he has provided his support and expertise to numerous education workshops, diabetes camps, and research projects with the CDiC program.
He recently completed his Ph.D. at the University of Exeter. His research was focused on understanding the phenotype, pathogenesis, and survival of type 1 diabetes in sub-Saharan Africa. As part of his Ph.D. research, he conducted primary studies amongst children and young adults diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in Cameroon and Uganda (with external secondary analysis from cohorts in Tanzania and South Africa). He looks forward to building a large-open dataset of people with type 1 diabetes in Africa, which can serve as leverage to foster a better understanding of the condition and to promote state-of-the-art research on type 1 diabetes in Africa. He has a growing publication record of over 40 peer-reviewed scholarly articles.
He is delighted to receive this Allan Drash Fellowship Award and extremely grateful for the support of his mentors in Cameroon (Professors Eugene Sobngwi, Jean Claude Mbanya, and Dr. Mesmin Dehayem) and the UK (Professors Angus Jones, Timothy McDonald, and Andrew Hattersley) who have contributed immensely to his training. During this fellowship at the Oslo Diabetes Centre, he primarily looks forward to learning the fundamentals of setting up and delivering type 1 diabetes care using an electronic healthcare system. He believes setting up a simplified type 1 diabetes electronic registry system is critical to improving the management and follow-up of people with type 1 diabetes in Cameroon and will contribute to strengthening research capacity within the CDiC program.
Mahira Saiyed
Dr. Mahira Saiyed holds an MPH from India. She has spent the last ten years working at Diacare as an associate consultant, public health researcher, and certified diabetes educator.
She is a project coordinator for Changing Diabetes In Children (CDIC), Life For a Child (LFAC), and the SWEET registry. She has been involved in research due to all of these undertakings. She has given oral and poster presentations on her work at several ISPAD congresses. She is actively interested in diabetes advocacy and is associated with the Juvenile Diabetes Parents Foundation in Ahmedabad. She has been part of various diabetes awareness programs and educational initiatives. Also, I had an occasion to organize education programs and treks for people with diabetes.
She has been one of the recipients of- the ISPAD travel grant (2017), the SWEET research grant (2018), the EASD postgraduate course in clinical diabetes and complications (2019), a research fellowship from the Foundation of People-centric Health System, India (2023). She was selected to attend the ISPAD Science School for Healthcare Professionals in 2023.
She has authored Life OtherWise (LOW)- A Storybook on the Prevention of Hypoglycemia.
Her research interests are type 1 diabetes-related technology, diabetes education, the healthcare system, and health inequalities.
She is grateful to her mentor, Dr. Banshi Saboo, who gave her this platform to serve people with diabetes. She extends her thanks to the CDIC, LFAC, and SWEET teams for giving her various educational and research opportunities.
She is grateful to ISPAD and JDRF for the opportunity and is honored to receive the Allan Drash Fellowship 2023. To provide comprehensive care and close the research gaps in India, she aspires to broaden her clinical and research experiences in diabetes. At the same time, she wishes to raise the standard of care and quality of life for people with diabetes in her nation.
Maja Raicevic
Dr. Maja Raicevic was born in Podgorica, Montenegro, where she graduated from the University of Montenegro's School of Medicine in 2014. Due to the lack of mentors in pediatric endocrinology and diabetology in her country, she completed her pediatric residency training, followed by pediatric endocrinology and diabetology training in Belgrade, Serbia.
She works at the Institute for Children’s Diseases, Clinical Centre of Montenegro. It is a tertiary hospital and the only center in the country where type 1 diabetes can be diagnosed and treated. Maja is interested in improving her institute’s multidisciplinary pediatric diabetes program and gathering knowledge regarding diabetes technology.
She is also an active member of ISPAD, ESPE, and the Montenegrin Society for Endocrinology. In 2018, she attended the first Balcan School of Pediatric Clinical Endocrinology. In 2022, which was a very fruitful year in her career, she was selected to attend ISPAD Science School in Prague and ESPE DOM School in Torgiano. She became a JENIOUS Ambassador, which gave her the opportunity to meet colleagues throughout the world. In the following year, she attended ESPE Winter School in Belgrade.
Maja has a very positive attitude toward clinical research. Her manuscripts regarding congenital hyperinsulinism and type 1 diabetes were published in high-rated international journals. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Montenegro and plans to initiate some research activities in her center.
Allan Drash Clinical Fellowship Award is an opportunity that will be extremely helpful at this stage of her career to develop as a clinician and a researcher in the right way. At the same time, it will be a chance for her institution to implement the insulin pump clinic as she will gain experience and improve her knowledge about new diabetes technologies. Ultimately, it will be a great chance to step forward in T1D children’s care in Montenegro.
Rade Vukovic
Rade Vukovic works as an attending physician at the Department of Paediatric Endocrinology of Mother and Child Health Care Institute of Serbia and as an assistant lecturer at the School of Medicine, University of Belgrade. He is a member of the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD) and ISPAD JENIOUS Group from 2016 to 2019. He is also a European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) member. He is actively involved as an ESPE Communication Committee member and is the Secretary of the ESPE Working Group on Disorders/Differences of Sex Development. He attended the 19th ISPAD Science School for Physicians 2019 in the Netherlands, the Global Fellows Program / ESPE Summer School 2017 in the USA, and ESPE Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism School 2018 in Greece. His doctorate thesis was on metabolically healthy obesity during childhood, with publications in pediatric diabetes, obesity, and metabolic syndrome, including the PsiMS score and the pediatric continuous metabolic syndrome score. As an active member of the Serbian Paediatric Endocrine Society, he was involved in the organization of the 1st Balkan School of Clinical Paediatric Endocrinology 2019 in Serbia as School coordinator, where international experts gave lectures on pediatric diabetes and congenital hyperinsulinism to the attending pediatric endocrinologists from 15 countries.
Fun fact: “When my dad bought a ZX Spectrum in the 1980s, I instantly fell in love with computers and video games. These feelings persisted throughout my studies, and at one point, I started wondering if it was normal for a grown-up individual, a doctor, to be still obsessed with computers, palm-tops, and all sorts of electronic gadgets. Now, when insulin pumps and CGM sensors are improving the lives of more and more kids with diabetes worldwide, I feel proud of being a gadget-loving nerd. Dad, thanks for the space invaders.”
Sommayya Aftab
Dr Sommayya Aftab is currently working as an Assistant Professor and clinical supervisor of Paediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes at The University of Child Health Sciences, The Children’s Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan, the largest pediatric tertiary care hospital and the first pediatric university in the country. She completed her MBBS at King Edward Medical College, Lahore, Pakistan (2005) and her fellowship in Paediatrics (FCPS) at the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (2012). She worked as a clinical fellow in the Department of Paediatric Endocrinology at The Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, UK, for 2 years (2017 to 2019). She did her MRCPCH (UK) in 2018 and was awarded FRCPCH (UK) in 2022.
Dr. Aftab has worked in pediatric endocrinology and diabetes for 10 years. She is an active member of ISPAD, ESPE, ASPED, and SPED-P. She is currently working as ESPE-YES group leader, ESPE-CPC member as YES representative, ISPAD-Jenious ambassador, and executive member of SPED-P. She has participated in ESPE Summer School 2019, ESPE DOM School 2021, and ASPED-ESPE Endocrine Academy 2023.
Dr. Aftab was the general secretary of the first international pediatric endocrinology and diabetes conference hosted by her institute in 2021. She has presented many abstracts and has been invited as a guest speaker at many national and international conferences on endocrine and diabetes. She has over 20 publications and is the author of a pediatric endocrine chapter in the Illustrated Textbook of Paediatrics by Prof Khalid N. Haque and Prof Talal Waqar.
Dr Aftab has been tirelessly working with many collaborators to improve the healthcare services for children and adolescents with diabetes at public sector hospitals in Pakistan. Her hospital is the biggest public sector referral center for pediatric diabetes, including type 1 diabetes, neonatal diabetes, MODY, secondary diabetes, and syndromic diabetes. She is the project coordinator who provides free insulin to diabetic children at her institute in collaboration with Life for a Child. She is the founder of the peer support group Diabeaters (Pakistan) and a member of the co-design committee Digibete (Pakistan). She has designed a type 1 diabetes education program at her institute.
Dr Aftab is delighted to have been awarded the Allan Drash Fellowship in 2023. This fellowship will allow her to learn about the use of technology in managing type 1 diabetes and improve her knowledge of managing rare diabetes. This will help her achieve her goal of creating a state-of-the-art pediatric diabetes center in Pakistan.
Styliani Giza
Dr. Styliani Giza graduated from the School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) in 2003. During her fellowship in pediatrics, she completed the 2-year Master of Science "Medical Research Methodology” and following the completion of her residency in pediatrics in 2011, she earned her PhD degree in 2013 with a thesis on “Study of C1858T polymorphism of protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 22 gene in children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus” at School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, AUTH under the mentorship of Professor Galli-Tsinopoulou with a grant by the Hellenic Association for the Study and Education of Diabetes Mellitus (HASD). During the PhD program, she participated as an observer at the Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Outpatient Unit of the 4th Department of Pediatrics in the Papageorgiou General Hospital of Thessaloniki, organized and supervised by Professor Galli-Tsinopoulou. In 2016, she started working as a consultant in Pediatrics in this Department, where she had the opportunity to expand her clinical experience in the management of diabetic ketoacidosis, new onset education, and follow-up of pediatric diabetes patients.
Dr. Giza has been working as a consultant in Pediatrics at the 2nd Department of Pediatrics in the AHEPA University General Hospital since 2021. She is a member of the pediatric endocrinology and diabetes team under the direction of Professor Galli-Tsinopoulou. She participated in the preparation of the presentation for the Peer Review Visit for the accreditation of the Unit of Diabetes Mellitus of Children and Adolescents as a SWEET Collaborative Center in 2022. Dr. Giza successfully manages the treatment of diabetic ketoacidosis patients. She attends bedside visits for in-patients and participates in the new onset training and follow-up of patients. She collaborates closely with the dietician for nutritional education and better metabolic control.
Dr. Giza is a member of ISPAD, ESPE, HASD, and the Hellenic Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Endocrinology. She has attended many national and international conferences and has presented many poster and oral presentations. She attended ESPE Summer School in 2021 and ESPE DOM School in 2022. She has published 17 papers in international peer-reviewed journals. She has served as a Co-Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Molecular Research on Type 1 Diabetes and its Complications” of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. During her ISPAD Allan Drash Fellowship at DECCP, she aims to improve her skills in new technologies in diabetes and expand her clinical experience in diabetes management.