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. 2015 Feb 19;9(5):1148-51.
doi: 10.1177/1932296815576363.

Escaping the Hemoglobin A1c-Centric World in Evaluating Diabetes Mellitus Interventions

Robert A Vigersky  1
Affiliations

Escaping the Hemoglobin A1c-Centric World in Evaluating Diabetes Mellitus Interventions

Robert A Vigersky. J Diabetes Sci Technol. .

Abstract

Any intervention in patients with diabetes must consider its effect on both the incidence of hypoglycemia and hemoglobin A1c. Yet, there is no single metric that expresses these key factors simultaneously. Such a composite metric would permit clinicians, regulators, manufacturers, payers, and researchers to more easily evaluate the merits of an intervention as well as enable the comparison of qualitatively different interventions. This article proposes a composite metric, the hypoglycemia-A1c score (HAS), as the basis for a more comprehensive approach for the stakeholders in diabetes treatment to better understand how an intervention affects diabetes management. The article also demonstrates how additional parameters such as effects on weight, quality of life, and costs could be included in such a scoring system.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus; glycemic control; hemoglobin A1c; hypoglycemia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author receives investigator-initiated research support from DexCom and is a consultant for Abbott Diabetes Care, Medtronic Diabetes, Bayer, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, and TempraMed.

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