"It’s been over twenty years since clinical inertia was coined a term, and since that time, experts have debated on how to define it, and where and when it exists across the treatment paradigm. Every year, scores of information cross HCP’s desks on clinical inertia, but when it comes to your patients, how do you determine whether your decisions to delay treatment intensification are clinical inertia or 'appropriate inaction?'

And what about obesity? Individualizing treatment targets for patients with diabetes requires a comprehensive approach to minimize associated morbidity and mortality. Because most patients with T2DM are overweight or obese, effective glucose control and weight loss are needed to reduce cardiovascular risk factors and other complications of T2DM. However, misconceptions about the causes and mechanisms of obesity, and the false assumption that patients can manage their weight with simple behavioral modifications, contribute to ongoing clinical inertia in patients with diabetes."

Visit the CME activity and Clinical Inertia Assessment Tool.

Donna Ryan is professor emerita at Pennington Biomedical in Baton Rouge, LA.

Robert Kushner is professor of medicine and medicine education at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and director of the Center for Lifestyle Medicine in Chicago, IL.

This episode is sponsored by the Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning, an independently owned and operated full-service medical education company that has been developing certified health care education for nearly twenty years. Visit the CME activity and Clinical Inertia Assessment Tool.