GP Clinical lead in Diabetes based in London, UK
Pro Member of Diabetes Africa
Dr Joan St John is a General Practitioner (GP) with special interest in diabetes, and is currently working as GP Clinical lead in Diabetes for an area of North-West London, UK. She also works as part of the multi-disciplinary award-winning Brent Integrated Diabetes Service.
Joan has always felt that education is the key to improving the quality of diabetes care. She is enthusiastic and passionate about informing and empowering People with Diabetes to enable them to live healthier lives and improve their self-care. Joan’s commitment to education has seen her giving talks and working in partnership with community and church groups as well as teaching Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacists and other allied healthcare professionals.
Joan is one of the co-authors of Carbs & Cals World Foods , the first book to provide a comprehensive and uniquely visual way to illustrate the carbohydrate content of traditional foods of Black, Asian, Arabic and Caribbean communities. People from these communities had difficulty accessing nutritional information about their traditional foods and hampered their ability to therefore self-manage their condition of Diabetes in which diet is a fundamental part of the self-management. This book was the culmination of Joan and her colleagues recognising a specific health inequity and working to redress the imbalance for specific communities living with Diabetes to empower these communities to have the nutritional information to enable them to make informed and healthier food choices.
Dr Joan St John is one of the first Diabetes UK Clinical Champions a programme that assists and equips Healthcare professionals that are passionate about Diabetes to improve an aspect of diabetes care in their area. She is now part of the Diabetes UK Professional Leadership alumni.”
Throughout her career Joan has always strived to provide excellent healthcare to all and has provided advice, practical assistance, support and health information to organisations dealing with conditions that disproportionately affect black people and BAME communities e.g. Sickle-cell Society, Culture Dementia as well as Diabetes UK.