June 20, 2013

Updated Hypoglycemia Classifications


That the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and The Endocrine Society would undertake this project says that hypoglycemia has been of greater concern by doctors lately. Five members from each organization were called together by the Chair, who is a member of both. A planning conference call was held before a two-day meeting at which staff from both organizations attended. The writing group used data from recent clinical trials and studies to update a prior work group report. Some conclusions were developed from expert opinion.

The new report reviews the impact of hypoglycemia on patients with diabetes and provides guidance about using this information in clinical practice. Because this was developed for clinical practice, I will not approach that side of it. As a patient, I have many reservations and concerns about the definitions and lack of understanding for patients to help them determine the severity of a hypoglycemic episode. This is where I feel the professionals are writing only for each other, and not to assist patients or to help educate patients. This lack of concern for education of patients is probably why I become upset. If, only if, they had taken some extra time to have expanded some areas, and include more information about hypoglycemia in the report, they could have also provided some excellent advice and guidance for patients. Believe it or not, many of us do learn.

The information is contained in PDF files and three can be found in this article. This link will take you to the Diabetes Care site as part of ADA where you can click on the Full Text (PDF) and download and read the data and background. The same link also has a slide set which you will need to click on and this will take you to a second page where again you will need to click on Slide Set which will open a window on screen to download a Microsoft PowerPoint Presentation (1.3 MB). The image below (slide 5) in about the consensus process and process of finally bringing it to publishing where we are able to read it. I felt this could be interesting. What is disappointing is that it is only nine slides in length.