Reducing therapeutic inertia in type 2 diabetes.

Background: Therapeutic inertia describes a failure to establish appropriate treatment targets and escalate treatment to achieve those targets. This inertia can be measured, and evidence of this inertia is present in approximately one-third of diabetes management consultations. This inertia describes a failure in the system to produce change, rather than assigning fault to the physician or patient.

Objective: This article discusses the importance of reducing therapeutic inertia in type 2 diabetes and focusing on reducing overall cardiovascular risk.

Discussion: This article discusses approaches to reducing treatment inertia in type 2 diabetes (ie identify the problem, get permission, set goals, measure progress and alter treatment to reach those goals). The treat-to-target methodology, the STABLE (Smoking cessation, Target organ involvement, HbA1c, Blood pressure, Lipid profile, Energy balance) acronym and practical approaches are described.