ADA Guidelines: How Do They Come About?

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2021 guidelines were just published, and I want to take a minute to discuss how the guidelines come about. [In the next two videos], I will talk about what I think is most important in the new guidelines.

The guidelines are created by the Professional Practice Committee of the American Diabetes Association. This is a committee of 16 individuals chosen from a variety of areas in terms of their knowledge about diabetes. Every year, our task is to go through and update the former set of guidelines, and then create the next year's guidelines.

The term on the committee is generally about 2 years so that the committee does not stagnate. This is not a committee of the same people year in and year out; it's a dynamic group of people who challenge each other and really try to make good guidelines. Of those 16 people, one is designated as the chairperson, and that person works very closely with the chief medical officer (CMO) of the ADA, who is involved in guideline writing as well.

The Process

For each of the 15 or so sections of the guidelines, a person is designated as the section head.