Spotlight on paediatric endocrinology

Hello, I am Dr Spoudeas, and I’m a fully trained general paeditrician who has sub-specialised in paediatric and adolescent endocrinology. The endocrine system comprises many glands, and as such, endocrinology covers a range of conditions that can impact on a person’s wellbeing in very subtle ways.

At London Medical, I look after all aspects of children’s growth, development, puberty, and hormonal control around the pituitary gland. I look after obesity and anorexia, and how these conditions impact on growth and development into the adult years. I see patients up to the age of 20, until growth and development are complete.

As a holistic practitioner, I can also link with the diabetes specialists at London Medical and deal with aspects of how wellbeing and nutrition impact on children’s growth and development. I am particularly interested in helping children in whom disruptions of the brain and pituitary hormone axis impact on development, including children’s cancers and brain tumours.

London Medical affords me the time to see my patients and get to know them so I can work holistically with my colleagues here and in other networks to get the best outcome for the children I see. As a team, we can look at endocrinology at all stages of life, and there are other aspects of adult medicine that impact how I transition patients to adult endocrinology.

We work with multi-disciplinary teams in diabetes, ophthalmology and adult reproductive medicine, for example. It’s a really exciting opportunity to build and expand upon the intersection of endocrinology and the adult interface, and I love that we can do our own in-house testing.

What is unique about London Medical is that we offer a small team to deliver care in a personalised way that really looks after our patients. A lot of us are very experienced, senior practitioners, but we also have our newer clinicians who bring the best of the future.

Patients at London Medical are not a number, they’re an individual, and it’s this type of holistic support that can help us guide them into a treatment care plan that we feel is right for them, rather than them accessing it separately. In this way, we bring the best of the past, where patients are really looked after, which is largely gone from healthcare today.

The endocrine system is the most primitive master control gland in the body. If it goes wrong, it can go wrong in so many different places, and it controls the things we take for granted: why we wake, why we sleep, why we’re hungry, why we’re thirsty. It encompasses all of that, and that’s why it’s so important to look at it holistically.

If you have been unable to find out what is going on in your body or your child’s, the endocrine system may be the culprit. At London Medical, my colleagues and I are here to help you and look after you, so do contact us if you need help.

Outside of London Medical, I’ve been supporting children who have survived cancer and brain tumours. Because of the lack of support available from the NHS for this group, I’ve set up this charity to help.