Professor Solomon Tesfaye is a consultant physician and diabetologist at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and honorary professor of diabetic medicine at the University of Sheffield.
Professor Tesfaye has been given an international lifetime achievement award in recognition of his significant achievements in advancing understanding of diabetic neuropathy, a major complication of diabetes. He is the first person from the UK to win the prestigious accolade since 2008 when it was awarded to his role model and mentor Professor John Ward, who developed diabetes services in Sheffield.
Celebrating a pioneer
Diabetic nerve damage is a painful but often forgotten complication of diabetes that causes numbness and an inability to perceive pain. Up to half of patients can be affected by the condition, which puts them at risk of infection, inadvertent injuries, and amputations.
Professor Tesfaye’s work has led to the advancement of new treatments and improved lives across the UK and beyond. Advised by Professor Ward to focus on one or two studies that have impact, in the 1990s Professor Tesfaye was the first to show what blood flow in the sural nerve (a purely sensory nerve in the back of the lower leg) looks like, demonstrating that it was impaired in those with diabetes-related nerve pain. His description is now used in textbooks across the world.
In a landmark paper published in 2005, Professor Tesfaye identified for the first time that nerve damage in people with diabetes is associated with other risk factors such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol and not just blood sugars, paving the way for the development of new treatments.
He also pioneered the use of electrical spinal-cord stimulation, a treatment used to relieve chronic pain in those with persistent diabetic neuropathy and convened the Toronto Diabetic Neuropathy Consensus Panel. This has since been cited 4,000 times and provides an international consensus on how diabetic neuropathy is managed, treated, diagnosed, and described.
Ongoing impact
More recent work has led to the establishment of an award-winning one-stop diabetes screening service in Sheffield, enabling people with diabetes to access all nine of their recommended diabetes health checks at the same time. As well as avoiding the need for multiple GP visits, the service has unmasked previously undiagnosed painful diabetic neuropathy in a quarter of attendees and highlighted the need for early detection in preventing devastating amputations.
Gordon Sloan, who trained under Solomon and works at the Academic Directorate of Diabetes and Endocrinology, also won the Young Investigator Award.
Professor Tesfaye said:
“I am hugely honoured to have won this award which really puts Sheffield on the map for its neuropathy research. This award is not only the result of personal effort but a testament to the combined effort of the whole unit. For me, few things come higher than knowing my achievements sit alongside the likes of Professor John Ward who was a huge role model for me. The strength and future of diabetic neuropathy research in Sheffield remains very bright, with Dr Gordon Sloan picking up the Young Investigator of the Year award at the same meeting, a title also bestowed to Dr Dinesh Selvarajah in previous years.”
Professor Waljit Dhillo, dean of National Institute for Health and Care Research Academy said:
“Congratulations to Professor Tesfaye on receiving this award for his outstanding contribution to diabetes research. His work is a perfect example of when research plays a crucial role in improving the health and wealth of the nation. I was delighted to see Solomon appointed as an NIHR senior investigator this year and look forward to working with him over the next four years.”
Article based on a press release.
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