2021 Clinical Practice Guidelines for Diabetes: Pharmacotherapy and the Korean Diabetes Association Support System

Abstract

The most important change introduced in the pharmacotherapy session for the 2021 Clinical Practice Guidelines for Diabetes is the recommendation of two different strategies according to the patient’s condition. One approach is to optimize the blood glucose levels, while the other approach is to reduce adverse cardiovascular events or mortality, especially in patients with comorbidities (e.g., heart failure, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, or chronic kidney disease). We suggest four algorithms that take into account the patient’s condition (algorithms 1 to 4). The Korean Diabetes Association (KDA) developed a web-based clinical decision support system, known as the KDA support system (KDASS), which helps with the diagnosis of diabetes or gestational diabetes and whether to use glucose-lowering agents according to the patient’s condition.