Understanding Clinical Inertia in Diabetes

Clinical inertia is common in the management of asymptomatic chronic disease such as diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. In case of diabetes, it exists in all stages of management of diabetes. It can be at population level or at patient level. In addition to assessment of glycemic control with blood glucose and hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) monitoring, emerging concepts such as “glycemic variability” and “time in range” are increasingly used. Inability to reduce “glycemic variability” and attain “time in range” targets also contributes to clinical inertia.