John B. Buse, MD, PhD
The ADA and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) will release the first public draft of a new consensus report on managing hyperglycemia in type 2 diabetes on Tuesday, June 26, at the 78th Scientific Sessions. It’s the third joint consensus statement on the management of hyperglycemia from the two groups. The initial statement was issued in 2012 and revised in 2015.
“This is an update to the 2015 consensus statement that has guided our basic framework for treating type 2 diabetes,” said John B. Buse, MD, PhD, co-chair of the ADA/EASD committee writing the new consensus statement. “We are taking a new look at hyperglycemia based on the many studies conducted since 2014, particularly the cardiovascular outcomes trials.”
Research for the new statement began in early 2017 and the writing group began its work in October 2017. The committee made revisions as recently as April 2018 based on internal discussions.
A second round of revisions will be made during the summer based on comments and feedback from diabetes care providers, clinical researchers, patient groups, payers, regulators, and stakeholders. The final draft of the new statement will be released in October at the EASD annual meeting in Berlin, Germany.
The Scientific Sessions is the first opportunity for the diabetes community to see and review the new statement in the making, said Dr. Buse, Distinguished Professor and Chief of Endocrinology at the North Carolina School of Medicine.
It’s not yet clear precisely how existing treatment recommendations will be adjusted based on new studies reported between 2014 and 2017, Dr. Buse said. But it’s a good bet that Scientific Sessions attendees will see a move toward more specific recommendations based on patient characteristics and fewer one-size-fits-all recommendations. Specific characteristics like obesity, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease will likely be addressed in the new consensus statement.
“We will certainly highlight the need to individualize all aspects of care in a patient-centered way, taking into account both specific patient attributes and preferences,” Dr. Buse said.
“We all agree on 80 percent of the language that has been drafted so far, and we could disagree with most of the rest of the 20 percent in a debate setting,” he continued. “There’s a lot of imperfect evidence on the table. And for some of the issues, there’s no right answer. We are crafting an intercalated opinion using the best evidence we can muster. No doubt there will be substantial discussion and dispute of the recommendations, but we hope to air them well prior to producing the final document.”
