DRWF Q & A Panel

Professor Edzard Ernst

Leading expert in Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Medical School, Exeter

Professor Ernst qualified as a physician in Germany in 1978 where he also completed his MD and PhD theses. He has received training in acupuncture, autogenic training, herbalism, homoeopathy, massage therapy and spinal manipulation. He was Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PMR) at Hannover Medical School and Head of the PMR Department at the University of Vienna. In 1993 he established the Chair in Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter.

He is founder/Editor-in-Chief of two medical journals (Perfusion and FACT). He has published more than 30 books and in excess of 700 articles in the peer-reviewed medical literature. His work has been awarded with eight scientific prizes.

Gwen Hall

DSN/Clinical Practice Educator, NHS Surrey

She is currently employed as a Diabetes Specialist Nurse in Primary Care in the Guildford and Waverley locality and as a Clinical Practice Educator. Among the many other strings to Gwen's bow, she is on the editorial board of Practice Nurse journal, is Associate Editor of Diabetes and Primary Care and is a Visiting Fellow of the University of Surrey. She writes regularly for magazines and journals and has contributed to several publications.

Azmina Govindji BSc RD

Consultant Nutritionist and Registered Dietitian

As well as being a consultant nutritionist and registered dietitian, Azmina is also a broadcaster, best-selling author and Master NLP Practitioner. She was Chief Dietitian to Diabetes UK from 1987-1995.

She is currently a media spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association (BDA) and a member of the British Heart Foundation Ethnic Strategy Committee.

Azmina appears on TV (such as BBC1’s The One Show, ITV’s This Morning, and Channel 5’s The Wright Stuff) and is author of 15 books, including Healthy Eating for Diabetes with Antony Worrall Thompson, Great Healthy Food Diabetes and Think Well to Be Well (published in association with DRWF).

Sarah Brewer

GP, Health Journalist and Expert in Complementary Medicine.

Dr Sarah Brewer worked as a GP before moving into hospital medicine.

She was health journalist of the year in 2002, and is the author of over 35 books, including Natural Approaches to Diabetes and the Natural Health Guru series.

Sarah is health columnist for several newspapers and magazines including Prima and Marie-Claire.

Emma Howard

Community Diabetes Lead Podiatrist, Oxfordshire PCT

Emma studied for a BSc Hons in Podiatry at the University of Brighton graduating in 1997.

For 10 years she worked as a podiatrist in Shropshire. In 2003 she successfully completed a post graduate qualification in the diabetic foot and has been working in specialist diabetic foot clinics ever since. 

After 2 years working for NHS Knowsley in Merseyside as a diabetic foot specialist Emma has joined the podiatry team in Oxfordshire working as a Community Diabetes Lead Podiatrist helping to manage the high risk diabetic foot complications in the local area.