Standards of Medical Care for Patients With Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes is a chronic illness that requires continuing medical care and education to prevent acute complications and to reduce the risk of long-term complications. People with diabetes should receive their treatment and care from a physician-coordinated team. Such teams include, but are not limited to, physicians, nurses, dietitians, and mental health professionals with expertise and a special interest in diabetes. The following standards define basic medical care for people with diabetes. These standards are not intended to preclude more extensive evaluation and management of the patient by other specialists as needed. These standards of diabetes care seek to provide:

1. Physicians and other health care professionals who treat people with diabetes with a means to

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  Set treatment goals
  
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  Assess the quality of diabetes treatment provided
  
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  Identify areas where more attention or self-management training is needed
  
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  Define timely and necessary referral patterns to appropriate specialists
  

2. People with diabetes with a means to

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  Assess the quality of medical care they receive
  
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  Develop expectations for their role in the medical treatment
  
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  Compare their treatment outcomes with standard goals
  

For more detailed information, refer to Skyler (Ed.):

Medical Management of Type 1 Diabetes

and Zimmerman (Ed.):

Medical Management of Type 2 Diabetes

(see bibliography).