TAR­GET AU­DI­ENCE

The tar­get au­di­ence for the Stan­dards of Care in­cludes pri­ma­ry care physi­cians, en­docri­nol­o­gists, nurse prac­ti­tion­ers, physi­cian as­so­ci­ates/​as­sis­tants, phar­ma­cists, di­eti­tians, and di­a­betes care and ed­u­ca­tion spe­cial­ists. The Stan­dards of Care also pro­vides guid­ance to spe­cial­ists car­ing for peo­ple with di­a­betes and its mul­ti­tude of com­pli­ca­tions, such as car­di­ol­o­gists, nephrol­o­gists, emer­gen­cy physi­cians, in­ternists, pe­di­a­tri­cians, psy­chol­o­gists, neu­rol­o­gists, oph­thal­mol­o­gists, and po­di­a­trists. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, these rec­om­men­da­tions help pay­ers, pol­i­cy mak­ers, re­searchers, re­search fund­ing or­ga­ni­za­tions, and ad­vo­ca­cy groups to align their poli­cies and re­sources and de­liv­er op­ti­mal care for peo­ple liv­ing with di­a­betes.

The ADA strives to im­prove and update the Stan­dards of Care to en­sure that clin­i­cians, health plans, and pol­i­cy mak­ers can con­tin­ue to rely on it as the most au­thor­i­ta­tive source for cur­rent guide­lines for di­a­betes care. The Stan­dards of Care rec­om­men­da­tions are not in­tend­ed to pre­clude clin­i­cal judg­ment. They must be ap­plied in the con­text of ex­cel­lent clin­i­cal care, with ad­just­ments for in­di­vid­u­al pref­er­ences, co­mor­bidi­ties, and oth­er pa­tient fac­tors. For more de­tailed in­for­ma­tion about the man­age­ment of di­a­betes, please re­fer to Med­i­cal Man­age­ment of Type 1 Di­a­betes (1) and Med­i­cal Man­age­ment of Type 2 Di­a­betes (2).