Inpatient diabetes control: rationale.

This is the first of two articles on the Consensus Development Conference on Inpatient Diabetes Control, which was sponsored by the American College of Endocrinology and held in Washington, DC, 14 –15 December 2003. Donald Bergman (New York, NY), President of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, suggested the importance of endocrinologists beginning “to partner . . . for practical reasons,” perhaps in this one fashion emulating trial lawyers and the National Rifle Association by finding strength in numbers! Nathaniel Clarke, on behalf of the American Diabetes Association, which cosponsored the meet ing , s t res sed the importance of developing common conclusions and guidelines. Representatives of the Endocrine Society, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the Society of Hospital Medicine, and the American Society of Anesthesiologists agreed on the importance of the topic. Alan Garber (Houston, TX), who moderated the conference, pointed out the frequency of diabetes among hospitalized persons and noted that at his institution, approximately one-third of persons in the coronary care unit have diabetes, with onethird of this group having glucose levels 200 mg/dl. There are, he noted, few existing standards for glycemic control of persons with diabetes in hospital.