Helen R Murphy Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society Annual Scientific Meeting 2024

Helen R Murphy

Dr Helen Murphy is a Professor of Medicine (Diabetes and Antenatal Care) at the University of East Anglia, and a practicing clinician (Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust, Cambridge University NHS Foundation Trust). She runs a diabetes pregnancy research programme which aims to support women with diabetes to achieve the pregnancy glucose targets required for optimal mother and baby health outcomes. She co-led the CONCEPTT Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) trial. CONCEPTT demonstrated health benefits for mothers with type 1 diabetes (T1D), their newborn infants and the potential for substantial healthcare cost savings. In addition to important scientific contributions, building research infrastructure and supporting the next generation of clinical academics, data from CONCEPTT led to changes in clinical practice, CGM is now the recognised standard of care for pregnant women with T1D. She works with a multidisciplinary team of diabetes and obstetric clinicians, engineers, and social scientists to develop and evaluate closed-loop insulin delivery systems. Her work demonstrating that closed-loop systems could transform the future clinical management of T1D during pregnancy was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Based on these landmark studies, the CamAPS FX closed-loop system is licensed for use during T1D pregnancy and strongly endorsed by the 2023 proposed NICE guidelines for women who are pregnant or planning pregnancy. Helen also serves as clinical lead for the National Pregnancy in Diabetes (NPID) audit, which is the largest population-based study in diabetes pregnancy. Data from NPID directly informs national healthcare policy, highlighting the urgent need to improve glycaemic management in type 2 diabetes (T2D) pregnancy. She will lead a high quality RCT to examine the impact of CGM on pregnancy outcomes in T2D. Supported by JDRF, Diabetes UK, and the NIHR, her research is changing the management of diabetes in pregnancy. Helen serves on several research committees, the editorial board for Diabetes Care, Diabetologia, and is a regular contributor to national and international scientific meetings.