I would like to serve as the chair of diabetes research and clinical practice guidelines committee. I have been involved for the past three years as a chair in this committee in different diabetes research projects. Diabetes research is my passion and my defining experience which has a lasting impact on me and my collogues and I hope to lead committee so it can positively influence all ASPED society members. From my experience, I learned the basics of research program, how to motivate team members, communicate with international researchers and be able to publish in high impact international journals. I believe my involvement in this committee over the past three years has prepared me for this position for a second term.
It is extremely important for the chair to promote a constant, reputable public face to ASPED community which I have. In the past years, I have had the opportunity to work with a variety of initiatives and international committees in the field of guidelines as ISPAD and ESPE.
I believe I have the experience and temperament to be a respected chair in our community that can successfully represent ASPED to other international organizations and continue to build relationships with other societies.
However, I feel the most important qualities of chair are supportive leadership, organizational skills, vision, and passion. ASPED is my primary commitment, and I am prepared to dedicate all of the necessary time to maintain and expand that committee with all the linking that it needs.
I would be honored to lead the diabetes research and guidelines programming, advocating, and developing our own guidelines specific for the region as Fasting in Ramadan that we worked vigorously on and published for the first time in Pediatric Diabetes Journal” ISPAD Clinical Practice Consensus Guidelines: Fasting during Ramadan by young people with diabetes”. Moreover, I was involved in several ASPED publications that needed to disseminate diabetes research proposals to key researchers in various ASPED countries in the planned multi-center projects; including continuous glucose monitoring, neonatal diabetes, a survey of physicians’ perceptions and practices during Ramadan fasting in children and adolescents all of which were published in high impact factor journals. Also, I was responsible for updating ASPED web site regarding diabetes which involves not only ASPED publications but also all currently updated international guidelines from different international Societies. Moreover, I served as a Steering Committee member of ASPED-ISPAD Diabetes Academy since 2016 and was involved in organization of this academy throughout years with huge success yearly. Fortunately, we managed to publish all conference proceedings for diabetes academy in the past years. In addition, as a part of ASPED research ethics committee, we approved several, projects performed under ASPED umbrella.
Moving from the scientific part into activity part, we performed several art competitions for children with diabetes that explored their perceptions of diabetes obtained through drawing in childhood and adolescence with great talent in drawings and was useful in detecting problems of psychosocial adaptation in children with diabetes and in improving communication with health professionals.
I want to provide ASPED opportunities for growth and leadership experiences in the field of diabetes research and update members with the latest regional and international diabetes practice guidelines. I hope to continue to help shape and develop ideas and discussions that promote strong publications in the region.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Nancy Elbarbary