Primary care clinicians (PCCs) are ideally suited to educate and advise people with type 2 diabetes about basal insulin. This program will inform PCCs about current recommendations and advances in the safe and effective use of basal insulin, so they can provide individualized, appropriate care for their patients.

In this talk, the speaker will discuss goals of treatment as it relates to microvascular complication risk reduction and reasons for using insulin in specific populations, focusing on type 2 diabetes. Additionally, learners will review currently available short- and long-acting insulins on the U.S. market and associated risks and benefits of use. Finally, the speaker will expand on the practical use of insulin (i.e., when to start, how to titrate, etc.).

When patients with T2DM have difficulty controlling their glucose with standard approaches, or are newly diagnosed but severely hyperglycemic, insulin is commonly used to help control their metabolism. Using long acting, once a day agents is a standard of care but in the last 15 years, the costs of insulin has skyrocketed. During this episode we will review a study examining the effects of using Neutral Protamine Hagedorn Insulin (NPH) rather than once a day insulin on A1c control and risk for hypoglycemia and discuss their findings, which suggest NPH can be used with equivalent glycemic control and with no additional risk.