Addressing Glycemic Targets from Diagnosis to Discharge

Diabetes, an ever-increasing nationwide epidemic, affects > 29 million Americans, with 21 million people diagnosed and another 8.1 million undiagnosed.1 Of the 12.3% of the adult population with diabetes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in four is unaware that they are living with diabetes.2 Increasing obesity rates have greatly contributed to the increase in the incidence of type 2 diabetes. This underpins the prediction that, unless significant lifestyle changes are undertaken, one in three Americans will have diabetes by 2050.1 The children of today face the startling prediction that they will be the first generation to have shorter lifespans than their parents. These frightening calculations are based on the increasing rate of obesity and its contribution to the increasing number of type 2 diabetes diagnoses in young people.3 The more recent official classification of prediabetes has been used to create and implement new interventional treatment options for as many as 86 million additional Americans, many of whom also remain undiagnosed. These combined glucose abnormalities have led to increasing numbers of hospitalized patients in need of glucose management and coordination of additional resource allocations.1