Faculty Spotlight: Elizabeth Doyle

Elizabeth Doyle has devoted her career to improving the lives of children, adolescents, and young adults living with diabetes. A 1995 graduate of Yale School of Nursing, she has spent more than three decades providing compassionate, evidence-based diabetes care while also helping prepare the next generation of nurse practitioners to do the same. Her work spans clinical practice, teaching, and scholarship, with a particular focus on ensuring that individuals and families have access to the latest diabetes treatments and technologies in ways that support quality of life. Through her longstanding work with the Yale Pediatric Diabetes team and her leadership in the diabetes concentration at YSN, Liz continues to shape both patient care and provider education in meaningful and lasting ways.

Q: Please describe your research or clinical focus area(s).

A: Since graduating from YSN in 1995, I have devoted my career to caring for children, adolescents, and young adults with diabetes. My goal has always been to provide families with the most up-to-date treatment options while doing so in a way that minimizes the impact of diabetes on their quality of life.

Q: What first drew you to this area of scholarship or clinical focus? Was there a particular moment, experience, or patient/population that shaped your path?

A: Yes, there was a particular experience. Before coming to YSN, I worked as a staff nurse at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, where I cared for adolescents and young adults hospitalized with diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). I remember wanting to help them, to provide education that might prevent another hospitalization, but feeling frustrated because I did not yet know how. Around that same time, a young endocrinologist there, Dr. Joe Rosa, was informally teaching staff about acid-base metabolism, and I was completely intrigued. When I came to YSN and learned about the diabetes concentration, I enrolled right away, and it became one of the most meaningful parts of my YSN experience. I later completed a clinical rotation with the Yale Pediatric Diabetes team, where I was taught by one of the greats in pediatric endocrinology, Dr. William Tamborlane. I remain a member of that treatment team more than 30 years later.

Q: How would you describe your work to someone outside of nursing or healthcare?

A: My work has three main areas of focus. First, as a clinician, I care for children, adolescents, and young adults with diabetes. I have had the privilege of following some families for more than 15 years and watching children grow into wonderful young adults while learning to manage a complex chronic condition. My goal is to help them access the best and latest diabetes technology while also helping them understand that they can live full, happy, and productive lives.

Second, I teach the next generation of nurse practitioners. I teach in the pediatric program, and one of the greatest joys of my career has been sharing my passion for holistic diabetes care with students in the diabetes concentration. I especially value that the concentration brings together students from different specialties, creating opportunities to learn across disciplines. It is incredibly rewarding to know that I am helping prepare clinicians who will expand access to high-quality diabetes care for more people.

Third, I enjoy scholarship and writing. My most recent scholarly work is my first comprehensive book. After presenting on the diabetes concentration at a nursing conference at Trinity College in Ireland in spring 2025, Springer Nature invited me to write a book for clinicians and students related to diabetes care. Because of the growing prevalence of mental health concerns among people living with diabetes, I chose to focus the book on this topic across the lifespan. My colleague at YSN, Dr. Elyssa Ely, is serving as co-author and contributing the adult-focused chapters. We hope the book will be published in 2027.

Q: What problem are you ultimately trying to solve through your work?

A: The incidence of diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes, continues to rise. Today, more than 40 million Americans are living with diabetes, which is about 1 in 8 people. There are not enough specialists to care for everyone with this condition, and it is estimated that approximately 75% of people with diabetes rely on their primary care providers for management. Through the diabetes concentration, my goal is to provide both didactic and clinical education that better equips primary care providers to care for this growing population.

Q: What has been the most meaningful impact of your work so far on patients, students, clinical systems, or policy?

A: One of the most meaningful impacts of my work goes back many years. After graduating from YSN, I became the trial coordinator for an NIH-funded study led by Dr. Margaret Grey at the School of Nursing, who was also my thesis advisor. The study focused on coping skills training for adolescents who were beginning more intensive diabetes therapy following the landmark Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT), which showed that intensive therapy could reduce long-term complications.

My role was to implement and manage the intensive therapy component for participating adolescents. At that time, many adolescents were not using insulin pumps because clinicians often felt they were not “safe” candidates. Working with colleagues, I helped conduct a sub-analysis comparing multiple daily injections with insulin pump therapy, and we found that pump therapy was not only safe for adolescents, but more effective. The publication of that work helped support broader access to pump therapy in pediatrics. Today, insulin pump therapy is a mainstay of care for children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes. In fact, more than 75% of children and adolescents treated at Yale now use insulin pumps.

Q: How does your work change what clinicians do at the bedside, in the community, or within health systems?

A: My work helps improve both direct clinical care and provider preparation. Through my clinical work, scholarship, and teaching, I aim to help clinicians deliver more effective, evidence-based, and holistic diabetes care. A major part of that impact comes through education—ensuring that more providers, especially in primary care settings, feel equipped to manage diabetes confidently and appropriately.

Q: Who do you most often collaborate with, and why are those partnerships important to your work? How do you involve the non-academic community in your work?

A: In addition to the patients and families I care for, I most often collaborate with members of our multidisciplinary treatment team, including colleagues in medicine, social work, and nutrition. I also work closely with mental health providers when families need additional support. These partnerships are essential because they allow us to provide truly holistic care that addresses both the medical and psychosocial needs of patients and families living with diabetes.

Q: How do students or trainees get involved in your work, and what do they gain from that experience?

A: Students primarily engage with my work through the diabetes concentration and related teaching opportunities. Through that experience, they gain both didactic knowledge and clinical exposure that help them better understand how to care for people with diabetes across settings and across the lifespan. My hope is that they leave with stronger clinical confidence, a more holistic view of diabetes care, and a deeper appreciation for the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.

Q: What part of your work gives you the most energy or keeps you motivated?

A: Teaching in the diabetes concentration gives me tremendous energy, but what keeps me most motivated is caring for children and adolescents with diabetes each week and seeing them succeed. Watching patients and families grow, adapt, and thrive despite the challenges of diabetes is my true “why.”

Q: What advice would you give to a nurse or student interested in pursuing a similar path?

A: My best advice is to practice intellectual humility. Diabetes care is evolving quickly, and treatments and technologies are changing all the time. Keep learning. Keep reading. Students and even the most seasoned clinicians should recognize that they will never have all the answers. Rely on your resources, stay curious, and continue learning so you can provide the very best care for your patients.