We have read with interest the study by Cahn et al. (1) that summarized the results on the salient determinants of setting glycemic targets by a large group of worldwide diabetologists. The authors showed that life expectancy and the risk of developing hypoglycemia are the two most important factors guiding decisions on individualized targets of HbA1c (1). The results of this study provide a more granular input to formulate the existing standards of diabetes care (2) on customizing the glycemic target for elderly patients with diabetes. We agree with Raz and Cahn (3) when they pointed out in a comment on our article (4) that predictive algorithms based on patient-level data are useful to guide clinical decisions on the intensity of treatment and complement the guidelines suggested by expert opinion.
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Acknowledgments. The authors thank Jennifer Lutz at the Predictive Analytics and Comparative Effectiveness Center at Tufts Medical Center for her guidance in the submission process.
Funding. This study was supported by the Predictive Analytics and Comparative Effectiveness Center at the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA.
Duality of Interest. No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.
