Roy Taylor (diabetologist)
# Roy Taylor (diabetologist)

Roy Taylor MBE is a physician, diabetologist, and author who is currently the Director of Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre. His Scopus h-index is 54 (As of 2022).

Taylor has worked on identifying the cause of type 2 diabetes and in furthering retinal screening for diabetic eye disease in the United Kingdom.

Taylor qualified in medicine at the University of Edinburgh, and is Professor of Medicine and Metabolism at Newcastle University and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust. He has been conducting research on type 2 diabetes since 1978. He founded the Newcastle Magnetic Resonance Centre in 2006 to apply innovative techniques to study in all medical specialities.

In 2011 Taylor showed that type 2 diabetes was a simple, reversible condition of excess fat within liver and pancreas. This led to a series of studies, most recently the Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial which demonstrated that type 2 diabetes can be reversed to normal in Primary Care and that the underlying pathophysiological changes were durable. He has also shown that the whole pancreas is small and irregularly shaped in type 2 diabetes, and that it returns to normal very gradually during 2 years of remission from type 2 diabetes.

Taylor developed the system now used throughout the United Kingdom for screening for diabetic eye disease, which has resulted in a major reduction in blindness due to diabetes across the UK. He has produced books and other teaching aids for retinal screeners — a profession which he pioneered — co-founding the British Association of Retinal Screeners, developing a training programme and recognised professional qualification. He is also the author of a training manual for retinal screeners, The Handbook of Retinal Screening.

In addition, he developed the Newcastle Obstetric Medical service and advanced clinical management in diabetes during pregnancy and also in severe hyperemesis.

He is the author of Life Without Diabetes, a popular guide to understanding and reversing type 2 diabetes and achieving lasting remission.

Taylor was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to diabetic research.

## Major publications

* Belch, Jill; MacCuish, Angus; Campbell, Iain; Cobbe, Stuart; Taylor, Roy; Prescott, Robin; Lee, Robert; Bancroft, Jean; MacEwan, Shirley; Shepherd, James; Macfarlane, Peter (16 October 2008). "The prevention of progression of arterial disease and diabetes (POPADAD) trial: factorial randomised placebo controlled trial of aspirin and antioxidants in patients with diabetes and asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease". BMJ. 337: a1840. doi:10.1136/bmj.a1840. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 2658865. PMID 18927173.
* Lim, E. L.; Hollingsworth, K. G.; Aribisala, B. S.; Chen, M. J.; Mathers, J. C.; Taylor, R. (1 November 2011). "Reversal of type 2 diabetes: normalisation of beta cell function in association with decreased pancreas and liver triacylglycerol". Diabetologia. 54 (10): 2506–2514. doi:10.1007/s00125-011-2204-7. ISSN 1432-0428. PMC 3168743. PMID 21656330.
* Ofei, F.; Hurel, S.; Newkirk, J.; Sopwith, M.; Taylor, R. (July 1996). "Effects of an engineered human anti-TNF-alpha antibody (CDP571) on insulin sensitivity and glycemic control in patients with NIDDM". Diabetes. 45 (7): 881–885. doi:10.2337/diab.45.7.881. ISSN 0012-1797. PMID 8666137. S2CID 25884859.>
* Phillips, D. I.; Caddy, S.; Ilic, V.; Fielding, B. A.; Frayn, K. N.; Borthwick, A. C.; Taylor, R. (August 1996). "Intramuscular triglyceride and muscle insulin sensitivity: evidence for a relationship in nondiabetic subjects". Metabolism: Clinical and Experimental. 45 (8): 947–950. doi:10.1016/s0026-0495(96)90260-7. ISSN 0026-0495. PMID 8769349.
* Hallsworth, Kate; Fattakhova, Gulnar; Hollingsworth, Kieren G.; Thoma, Christian; Moore, Sarah; Taylor, Roy; Day, Christopher P.; Trenell, Michael I. (September 2011). "Resistance exercise reduces liver fat and its mediators in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease independent of weight loss". Gut. 60 (9): 1278–1283. doi:10.1136/gut.2011.242073. ISSN 1468-3288. PMC 3152868. PMID 21708823.
* Lean, Michael EJ; Leslie, Wilma S; Barnes, Alison C; Brosnahan, Naomi; Thom, George; McCombie, Louise; Peters, Carl; Zhyzhneuskaya, Sviatlana; Al-Mrabeh, Ahmad; Hollingsworth, Kieren G; Rodrigues, Angela M (10 February 2018). "Primary care-led weight management for remission of type 2 diabetes (DiRECT): an open-label, cluster-randomised trial" (PDF). The Lancet. 391 (10120): 541–551. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(17)33102-1. ISSN 0140-6736. PMID 29221645. S2CID 36522148.
