Dr Shamasunder Acharya is dedicated endocrinologist who has led improved outcomes for people with diabetes. He was recently awarded the 2016 Hunter New England Health “Staff Member of the Year Award”. Shamasunder has great passion and drive and like many good leaders he leads with respect, collaboration and by building team capacity to deliver great results.
As Clinical Director for Diabetes and Clinical Lead of Alliance Diabetes Stream, Shamasunder has demonstrated outstanding leadership and improved patient care through initiatives such as the introduction of telehealth appointments, new outpatient clinics and partnerships with local General Practitioners (GPs). With a limited specialist work force and lack of integration of services, providing excellent clinical care for 60,000 people with diabetes is a huge challenge.
His dedicated team has been able to achieve many significant milestones in diabetes. In the Alliance Diabetes Integration Project, Shamasunder and his team are working very closely with GPs in the area to improve diabetes care across the region by integrating specialist teams with the practices through caseconferences with patients to educate GPs about diabetes management. This has been a huge success and team is now expanding this model to 40 GP practices per year along with a regional diabetes registry.
