Professor Gerry Rayman given an MBE

Diabetes inpatient audit pioneer Professor Gerry Rayman has been given an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

My greatest ambition is to see diabetes care across the country improved. This isn’t an honour, it’s a gift.

The Consultant physician at the Diabetes and Endocrine Centre and the Diabetes Research Unit at Ipswich Hospital developed the ‘Ipswich Touch Test’, which has received international acclaim. He was the innovator and is the lead of the National Diabetes Inpatient Audit. He was the Clinical Lead for diabetes inpatient care and foot care at NHS Diabetes.

He is an Honorary Professor at University of East Anglia and Visiting Professor at the University of Suffolk and Associate Lecturer at Cambridge University. He is also Joint Clinical Lead for diabetes for the GIRFT project.

Speaking to the East Anglian Daily News, he said: “I’m absolutely delighted – it is a really nice thing to be recognised – but more than that, it’s a reflection on the support of my team, the patients and everyone at Ipswich Hospital.

Congratulations poured in on Twitter

“It’s really nice to get feedback to get patients and others – it’s a fantastic thing about Suffolk that we have a sense of community. If I worked in a big city, I wouldn’t get to know people like I do here. Working within the community is so important to me.

“Will it change anything? No. I enjoy doing my work – my greatest ambition is to see diabetes care across the country improved. This isn’t only an honour for me,  but I consider it a gift to all those who supported me.”

Gerry has introduced and led a number of education initiatives for SpRs including the Foundation course and the ABCD SpR meeting.

He was also the Clinical Lead for Diabetes UK’s ‘Putting Feet First’ campaign and has contributed to NICE guidelines on the diabetic foot, CG10 and CG119. He chaired DiabetesUK’s consensus guideline writing group for Flash Glucose Monitoring. He also chaired the writing group on the Diabetes Wound Guidelines, recently published by the International Working Group on Diabetic Foot Disease. He is past a President of the Endocrine and Diabetes Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is currently Clinical Lead for inpatient care at Diabetes UK, Chair of DiabetesUK’a Clinical Study Group 4 (Acute Care) and the Clinical Lead for NaDIA.