Technology to overcome therapeutic inertia

Clinical inertia or therapeutic inertia is a major health problem in type 2 diabetes (T2D). So much so that the American Diabetes Association (ADA) recently kicked off a multi-year campaign to identify the issues, address barriers and develop solutions (1). Therapeutic inertia is defined as “the failure to initiate or intensify therapy in a timely manner according to evidence-based clinical guidelines.” (2). The term therapeutic implies that both patients and healthcare providers (HCPs) are together part of the problem and the solution. A recent systematic review documented that on average it took more than 1 year from the start of treatment intensification until an A1C target was achieved (2). And in some studies, the range was more than 7 years! In the United States we are not meeting goals for diabetes management despite the multitude of new medications on the market to manage T2D and up-to-date clinical guidelines (3).