Distinguished Professor David Simmons is Professor of Medicine at Western Sydney University, District Advisor on Diabetes for the South Western Sydney Local Health District, previous Director of the Macarthur Diabetes Endocrinology and Metabolism Service MDEMS in Sydney and current President of the International Diabetes Epidemiology Group (IDEG) .

Before returning to Australia in 2014, Professor Simmons was the Clinical lead for the Diabetes service at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge UK. With over 530 refereed publications, he has won several national and international awards for his work in diabetes epidemiology, diabetes in pregnancy and diabetes service development including the American Diabetes Association 2020 Norbert Freinkel Award, 2022 Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group Pederson Award and 2025 International Diabetes Epidemiology Group Peter Bennett Award and The Australian Diabetes Society (ADS) Kellion Award.

He is the immediate past president of the Australasian Diabetes in Pregnancy Society (ADIPS). He is the Chief Investigator for APHLID, an RCT of a mental health/diabetes app in young adults with type 1 diabetes, the TOBOGM study the first large RCT of diagnosing and treating early gestational diabetes mellitus and Australian Chief Investigator for the CIRCUIT RCT of closed loop in pregnancies complicated by Type 1 diabetes and the CORDELIA RCT of CGM in GDM.

He remains a practising endocrinologist holding weekly diabetes in pregnancy clinics.

Previous Research

I have been involved in leading and publishing epidemiological research for over 30 years, having led blood pressure surveys in Central American and Africa while a medical student.  As a junior doctor in Coventry, England, I was exposed to the excess of diabetes among South Asians from a young age and established the Coventry Diabetes Study, a household survey of diabetes which became my doctorate.  My research has since been guided by this experience, including why some ethnic groups develop metabolic perturbations before 20 years of age and develop so much more diabetes.  However, my research has been strongly influenced by the response from this South Asian community, who instructed that any epidemiological research in a disadvantaged population should always be accompanied by attempts to address the health inequalities identified.

Current Research

My research to this day has been driven by this early work. My research includes preventing diabetes, its complications and family impacts including in the Sydney Pacific community (the PPDP RCT), SMART MUMS 2 study (A customised Digital Health intervention to reduce diabetes risk in women with recent diagnosed Gestational Diabetes); addressing mental health issues in young adults with diabetes (APHLID-M); and several major studies in diabetes in pregnancy including RCTs of GDM Prevention (DALI study), early pregnancy GDM diagnosis and treatment (the TOBOGM study), the follow-up of mothers and babies future cardio-metabolic risk and neurodevelopment (TOMTHUMB), switching to the IADPSG criteria across Sweden (the CDC4G study PI Helena Fadl), the MiTY, MiTY kids and MiTYTikes studies of metformin in type 2 diabetes in pregnancy (PI Denice Feig), RCT of closed loop in T1DM (CIRCUIT) and (WDEP) Western Diabetes Education platform, for reducing diabetes management errors in Australia: A healthcare workforce educational platform. Evaluated population-based programmes include preventing diabetes in rural NSW (“Hitachi” project), increasing pre-pregnancy care and contraception among women with diabetes through GPs, pharmacists, private and hospital clinics across South-Western Sydney (1 million population). This is also part of a wider evaluated integrated diabetes care programme cross primary and secondary care, improving uptake of contraception (and wider diabetes care) among transition patients (18-25 years). I continue to work in New Zealand, with a 25 year diabetes cohort study (DCSS), and studies of diabetic kidney disease including an RCT of supporting GPs to enhance their diabetes and renal management (REPORT).