Misadventures in insulin therapy: are you at risk?

About dollar 1 out of every dollar 7 spent on health care is related to diabetes mellitus, a leading cause of blindness and kidney failure and a strong risk factor for heart disease. Prevalence of the disease has increased by a third among adults in general in the last decade, but intensive therapy has been shown to delay the onset and slow the progression of diabetes-related complications. While insulin therapy remains key in the management of type 1 diabetes, many patients with type 2, or insulin-resistant, diabetes encounter insulin administration errors that compromise the quality of insulin delivery. Insulin errors are a major, but modifiable, barrier to dosing accuracy and optimal diabetes control for many patients. Future trends to combat the problem include increased use of insulin inhalers and smaller doses of rapid- or short-acting insulin to supplement longer-acting injections.