Hypoglyacemia in Type 2 Diabetes in Scotland & India

Delivering Precision Medicine in Diabetes using Big Data: A global health Initiative

The NIHR Unit on Global Diabetes Outcomes Research at the University of Dundee seeks PhD Students with statistical and computing background. Students will be registered with the University of Dundee and will be jointly supervised by academics from the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation in Chennai.

Hypoglycemia remains a common side-effect of the treatment of diabetes with insulin despite the introduction of novel insulins, formulations and methods of delivery, coupled with advances in glycemic monitoring. The epidemiology of severe hypoglycemia (defined as any event requiring help for recovery) has been well documented in western countries but is much more common in many parts of the world than had been recognised. Severe hypoglycemia events in people with diabetes account for 0.5% to 1.02% of all emergency ambulance call outs in the UK per annum where the frequency of severe hypoglycemia and its treatment by emergency medical services has been surveyed by opportunistic examination of ambulance records. In Tayside we have shown that improved medical care has seen the rates of events decline, but with increasing prevalence of disease means that the overall numbers are increasing. This project will examine the incidence and risk factors for hypoglycaemia in Scotland and India in order to establish strategies for reducing morbidity due to this common side effect. As this is a highly data intensive project, students with a background in quantitative sciences including bioinformatics, epidemiology, computing and statistics would be suitable. A MSc in an appropriate data intensive subject would be desirable.