In the lead up to Lifestyle Medicine 2018, we will be giving you the chance to get to know our speakers, their passion and their work in our ‘Meet the Speakers’ series.

Professor Jonathan Shaw is one of the world’s most highly cited researchers and was included in the “World Most Influential Scientific Minds” (Thomson Reuters 2014). As a leading diabetes researcher and physician, Professor Shaw will be sharing his expertise with us at Lifestyle Medicine 2018.

We asked him about his thoughts, vision and passion for Lifestyle Medicine, and here’s what he said:

“If you look at improvements in health and longevity over the last few decades, I think you would need to conclude that we have a fairly effective health care system already. Of course, things could be better, and I think one of our major challenges is improving connectivity. Medical records in one institution (hospital or general practice) are generally not accessible to people working in another institution, which impedes good care and significantly reduces our ability to analyse healthcare outcomes.

The greatest potential in the field is in implementation of the lifestyle changes that we know prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.

If a genie granted me a wish (applicable to health care), assuming that this genie isn’t powerful enough to cure or prevent all diseases and remove suffering (which of course would lead to new problems of massive over-population of the planet), I would like everyone to recognise that we can’t afford to provide healthcare unless we are prepared to allow all the data accumulated to be used to determine how well the healthcare system is working. Privacy concerns, though important, create too great a barrier at the moment.

What drives and continually motivates me to work is curiosity about how the world works and a desire to alleviate suffering.

When I have uninterrupted work time, my aim is to identify important questions for which we don’t have an answer yet. Asking a good question is much harder than answering a hard question.”

We are fortunate to have Professor Shaw joining us at Lifestyle Medicine 2018.