Rinki is an Auckland based diabetes physician working at Auckland City Hospital, Counties Manukau Health, in private practice at the Mercy Specialist Centre, and as a Senior Lecturer in medicine at the University of Auckland. She completed her endocrinology training in Auckland followed by a PhD in the genetics of diabetes at the University of Plymouth, UK in 2007. She has been the medical advisor for Diabetes Auckland since 2009, and is a principal investigator at the Maurice Wilkins Centre. Her research is in genetics and physiology of diabetes and obesity, in which she has over 60 publications and 5 book chapters.
The twin epidemics of obesity and type 2 diabetes are increasing rapidly with significant impacts on premature illness and death. Diabetes and its complications are costly to manage and causing strain on many healthcare systems around the world. Overnutrition is a key component in the development of both obesity and type 2 diabetes, hence the gut is a critical target for novel therapies designed to promote “wasteful" metabolism of nutrients. This presentation will outline several clinical trials being conducted in New Zealand to investigate the impact of therapies targeting the gut, including different types of bariatric surgery, fecal microbiota transplantation, probiotics, and hepatic sympathetic nerve ablation on the management of type 2 diabetes.
