{{Short description|British inventor and physician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026 }} {{Use British English|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL | dateformat = dmy }} '''Sheila Baillie Mackenzie Reith ''' CBE is a retired British hospital physician, credited with co-invention of the insulin pen, which she conceived.
==Career ==
Reith graduated in 1962.<ref>{{cite news |title=Health Check : An A-Z guide to Scotland's physicians : Hospitals S-Z |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/11905404.health-check-an-a-z-guide-to-scotlands-physicians-hospitals-s-z/ |access-date=12 February 2026 |work=The Herald |date=1 February 2003 |language=en}}</ref> She worked at the Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, from the mid-1970s<ref name="BBC-ckg72dn789ro">{{Cite web |date=2024-10-27 |title=Stirling's Dr Sheila Reith changed the lives of diabetics |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg72dn789ro |access-date=2026-02-12 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> and became a specialist in the treatment of diabetes.<ref name="NHSFV">{{cite web |title=Lifetime Achievement Award for Pioneering Diabetes Doctor |url=https://nhsforthvalley.com/lifetime-achievement-award-for-pioneering-diabetes-doctor/ |publisher=NHS Forth Valley |access-date=12 February 2026}}</ref>
She had moved to Stirling Royal Infirmary by January 1981.<ref name="BBC-ckg72dn789ro" /><ref name="Paton">{{cite journal |last1=Paton |first1=John S. |first2= Margaret |last2=Wilson |first3=John T. |last3=Ireland |first4=Sheila B.M. |last4=Reith |title=Convenient Pocket Insulin Syringe |journal=The Lancet |date=24 January 1981 |volume=317 |issue=8213 |pages=189–190 |doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(81)90063-5}}</ref>
== Insulin pen ==
Reith's daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was four.<ref name="NHSFV" /> When her daughter was five, they travelled from Glasgow to London by train, and Reith had to use the public toilets at Euston Station to inject her with insulin, a process involving drawing the insulin from a glass phial using a steel hypodermic syringe, which would later require being boiled to re-sterilise it. The inconvenience, discomfort and hygiene implications of this situation led her to conceive a reusable, cartridge-based system.<ref name="NHSFV" /><ref name="DUK1">{{Cite web |title=Research on insulin pens |url=https://www.diabetes.org.uk/our-research/about-our-research/our-impact/insulin-pen-research |access-date=2026-02-12 |website=Diabetes UK |language=en}}</ref>
She developed the idea at the Southern General Hospital from 1978 with her colleague and fellow physician John Ireland and John Paton, a bioengineer recruited at the University of Glasgow's Department of Clinical Physics and Bio-Engineering, for the project.<ref name="BBC-ckg72dn789ro" /><ref name="Paton" />
The invention was announced in a January 1981 paper in ''The Lancet'' by Ireland, Paton and Margaret Wilson, also of Southern General. It described the use of the prototype, based on a device known as the Becton-Dickinson 'Plastipak' self-contained insulin syringe, by seven patients aged from 8 to 49.<ref name="Paton" /> Further clinical trials commenced the same year, using 100 pens and 5,000 insulin cartridges funded by Diabetes UK.<ref name="BBC-ckg72dn789ro" /><ref name="DUK1" /> Within two years the world's first insulin pen, branded "Penject", entered general use.<ref name="BBC-ckg72dn789ro" /><ref name="DUK2">{{Cite web |title=Dr Sheila Reith, insulin pen pioneer, wins Pride of Britain award |url=https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about-us/news-and-views/dr-sheila-reith-insulin-pen-pioneer-wins-pride-britain-award |access-date=2026-02-12 |website=Diabetes UK |language=en}}</ref>
Reith revealed in a 2009 letter to the ''Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh'' that she and her colleagues made no money from the invention, with the then Greater Glasgow Health Board holding the patent on their behalf and receiving income until it sold the rights to pharmaceutical company Novo.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Reith |first1=Sheila |title=Insulin Pen Devices |journal=Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh |date=December 2009 |volume=39 |issue=4 |pages=381–382 |doi=10.1177/1478271520093904037}}</ref>
== Awards and recognition ==
Reith and her two collaborators were recognised on 28 March 1984 in an early day motion in the House of Commons, tabled by Michael Forsyth and other MPs.<ref>House of Commons. Parliamentary debates (Hansard) 28 March 1984; 581.</ref>
She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours, "for services to people with diabetes".<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=64082 |date=17 June 2023 |page=B10 |supp=y}}</ref>
She was given a Lifetime Achievement award at the 2024 Pride Of Britain Awards.<ref name="NHSFV" /><ref name="DUK2" /><ref name="Pride">{{Cite web |title=Lifetime Achievement |publisher=Pride of Britain Awards |url=https://www.prideofbritain.com/2024-winners/lifetime-achievement-5/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241111212853/https://www.prideofbritain.com/2024-winners/lifetime-achievement-5/ |archive-date=2024-11-11 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
== Personal life ==
Reith's husband David is deceased. She has at least one son and one daughter.<ref name="BBC-ckg72dn789ro" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reith, Sheila}} Category:Living people Category:Date of birth missing (living people) Category:NHS Forth Valley Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:20th-century British medical doctors Category:British medical doctors Category:British endocrinologists Category:20th-century British inventors Category:Year of birth missing (living people)