David W. Strain MBChB, MD, FRCP

Dr. David W. Strain is an Associate Professor at the University of Exeter Medical School. He was an honorary consultant in medicine for older adults and the Head of the academic department for healthcare for older adults. He is also a chair of the British Medical Association’s medical academic staff committee. Clinically, he runs a community diabetes service for older adults, works as an in-patient stroke consultant, and participates in the chronic fatigue service. Prior to this, Dr. Strain studied at Liverpool University before completing his Doctorate in Medicine on ‘Ethnic differences in the vascular responses to insulin resistance at the International Centre for Cardiovascular Health, Imperial College, London.

His main research focus is the health of older adults with diabetes; ensuring the right patient gets the right treatment. This includes research across the spectrum from mechanistic studies in the biologically young to pragmatic trials in the frail elderly population. He has expertise in exploring the mechanism that some medications give benefits to people with diabetes beyond their effect on sugar and blood pressure, to determine if we can better select the medication for each patient. He has performed the only study to date demonstrating the feasibility of individualizing targets for older adults across Europe. This has informed the new UK guidance document for the management of older adults with diabetes and frailty, of which he was the lead author. Within this remit, he engages in a multidisciplinary research portfolio, supervising renal physicians, cardiologists, radiographers, basic scientists as well as geriatricians.

His role in global drug development advisory boards and ability to translate complex mechanisms using readily interpretable analogies have earned him a global reputation for providing relevant comprehensible lectures. As a result, he has presented his work in over 110 countries, including the USA, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, India, Latin America, Africa, China, Russia, and Australasia

Since March 2020, he has been heavily involved in the COVID-19 response team. Within the BMA he has led the academic response to risk assessment of healthcare workers and has been responsible for several briefing statements such as a position statement on face masks and covid late complications, whilst clinically he is the Clinical Lead for COVID services at the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust. He has participated in the NHS long COVID Taskforce, has given evidence at the All-Party Parliamentary Group long COVID meetings, and has presented at several meetings including the Society of Occupational Medicine, the Westminster Health Policy, and is part of the Board of Science's organizational committee