Personalized Management of Hyperglycemia in Type 2 Diabetes: Reflections from a Diabetes Care Editors' Expert Forum

• Published in: Diabetes care Vol. 36; no. 6; pp. 1779 - 1788
• Main Authors: RAZ, Itamar, RIDDLE, Matthew C, LEROITH, Derek, DEFRONZO, Ralph, CEFALU, William T, ROSENSTOCK, Julio, BUSE, John B, INZUCCHI, Silvio E, HOME, Philip D, DEL PRATO, Stefano, FERRANNINI, Ele, CHAN, Juliana C. N, LEITER, Lawrence A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Alexandria, VA American Diabetes Association 01.06.2013
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Care and treatment; Diabetes; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Diabetes therapy; Diabetes. Impaired glucose tolerance; Editors; Endocrine pancreas. Apud cells (diseases); Endocrinopathies; Etiopathogenesis. Screening. Investigations. Target tissue resistance; Heart attacks; Humans; Hyperglycemia; Intervention; Life expectancy; Medical sciences; Medicine; Metabolic diseases; Miscellaneous; Mortality; Patient-Centered Care; Pharmaceutical industry; Precision Medicine; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Type 2 diabetes; United Kingdom; France; United States; Switzerland; Endocrinopathy; Type 2 diabetes; Human; Hyperglycemia; Treatment; Nutrition; Expert; Metabolic diseases; Endocrinology; Care
• ISSN: 0149-5992; 1935-5548
• DOI: 10.2337/dc13-0512

In June 2012, 13 thought leaders convened in a Diabetes Care Editors' Expert Forum to discuss the concept of personalized medicine in the wake of a recently published American Diabetes Association/European Association for the Study of Diabetes position statement calling for a patient-centered approach to hyperglycemia management in type 2 diabetes. This article, an outgrowth of that forum, offers a clinical translation of the underlying issues that need to be considered for effectively personalizing diabetes care. The medical management of type 2 diabetes has become increasingly complex, and its complications remain a great burden to individual patients and the larger society. The burgeoning armamentarium of pharmacological agents for hyperglycemia management should aid clinicians in providing early treatment to delay or prevent these complications. However, trial evidence is limited for the optimal use of these agents, especially in dual or triple combinations. In the distant future, genotyping and testing for metabolomic markers may help us to better phenotype patients and predict their responses to antihyperglycemic drugs. For now, a personalized ("n of 1") approach in which drugs are tested in a trial-and-error manner in each patient may be the most practical strategy for achieving therapeutic targets. Patient-centered care and standardized algorithmic management are conflicting approaches, but they can be made more compatible by recognizing instances in which personalized A1C targets are warranted and clinical circumstances that may call for comanagement by primary care and specialty clinicians.