New guidelines for standardizing glucose reporting and optimizing clinical decision making in diabetes

Most adults and children with type 1 diabetes are not in optimal glycemic control, despite advances in insulin formulations and delivery systems and glucose monitoring approaches. Critical barriers to optimal glycemic control remain. A panel of experts in diabetes management and research met to explore these challenges, and their conclusions and recommendations for how to improve care and optimize clinical decision-making are presented in a white paper in Diabetes Technology & Therapeutics (DTT).

Lead author Richard Bergenstal, MD, International Diabetes Center at Park Nicollet (IDC), outlines the critical issues impacting diabetes management as identified by the panel of luminaries in the field of diabetes during meetings facilitated by the IDC and funded by the Helmsley Charitable Trust. The team of authors emphasizes the critical need for standardization in the collection, reporting, visualization, and analysis of glucose monitoring data, and proposes clear and practical recommendations for implementing these solutions.

The expert panel included DTT Editor-in-Chief Satish Garg, MD, DTT Senior Editor Irl Hirsch, MD, and Andrew Ahmann, MD, Timothy Bailey, MD, Roy Beck, MD, PhD, Joan Bissen, Bruce Buckingham, MD, Larry Deeb, MD, Robert Dolin, MD, Robin Goland, MD, David Klonoff, MD, Davida Kruger, MSN, Glenn Matfin, MB ChB, MSc, Roger Mazze, PhD, Beth Olson, BAN, RN, Christopher Parkin, MS, Anne Peters, MD, Margaret Powers, PhD, Henry Rodriguez, MD, Phil Southerland, Ellie Strock, ANP-BC, William Tamborlane, MD, and David Wesley.

"Glucose monitoring is an essential part of effective diabetes management, and although it has come a long way, both health care providers and patients are frustrated that glucose data reporting has not been standardized," says Satish Garg, MD, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver. "The recommendations reported in this white paper are a good first step toward improving health care outcomes in type 1 diabetes."

The white paper is accompanied by three Commentaries: one by DTT Editor-in-Chief Satish Garg, MD, one by Francine Ratner Kaufman, MD, Medtronic and Children's Hospital, Los Angeles, and one by Aaron Kowalski, PhD and Sanjoy Dutta, PhD, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.