International diabetes and muscle function workshop
Leading experts from several fields came together to look at declining muscle strength in older people with diabetes in an international workshop led by the Institute of Diabetes for Older People (IDOP).
Professor Alan Sinclair chaired the two-day seminar titled ‘Type 2 Diabetes and Muscle Function Group Workshop’ at IDOP’s Putteridge Bury headquarters on Tuesday, 25th February, and Wednesday, 26th February.
Prof Sinclair said: “We investigated the skeletal muscle change in diabetes in older people in order to investigate any decline into frailty in vulnerable groups.
“Our multi-disciplinary team approach ensured a wide range of views and expertise were all brought to the table.”
As well as Prof Sinclair, the group included three German cardiologists, frailty expert Professor Leocadio Rodriguez Manas, from Spain, and representatives from the University of Bedfordshire’s Centre of Computer Graphics and Visualisation (CCGV).
There were also contributions from IDOP Professors Roger Gadsby and Mike Kirby, Professor of Applicable Computing Carsten Maple and Dr Michael Welsch from the Institute for Sport and Physical Activity Research, which is also based at the university.
They discussed developing interventions with a view to launching a research bid.
Professor Rodriguez Manas, from the University Hospital of Getafe in Madrid, said: “It was important to have this kind of meeting to put in contact different views on scientific problems. We had people from different scientific fields and all of them showed how they tackled the same problem.”
Principal scientist Professor Jochen Springer, from Berlin, said: “There was a lot of different expertise which came together. If you have the same people working on the same stuff you don’t only get the same views.”
Professor Gordon Clapworthy, head of CCGV, said: “It was very successful because we have been searching for an insight into diabetes and how our teaching can provide support for IDOP. It gave us the insight to develop our understanding to relevant issues.”