Multidisciplinary Panel Consensus for the Management of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Delphi Study

Abstract

Aim. To reach a multidisciplinary consensus on managing patients with type 2 diabetes among specialists in family medicine, cardiology, endocrinology, internal medicine, and nephrology.

Methods. A two-round Delphi study was conducted using a questionnaire with 68 pos- itive/negative statements distributed in four thematic blocks on diabetes management:

early diagnosis and prediabetes, referral criteria, treatment and comorbidities, and clin- ical management. The expert panel was composed of 105 physicians from different

specialties (family medicine, cardiology, endocrinology, internal medicine, and nephrol- ogy) with experience in managing patients with diabetes and who were members of a

diabetes-related society.

Results. Response rates for the first and second rounds were 86.7 and 75.2%, respec- tively. After both rounds, a consensus was reached on 52 (76.5%) items. The recom- mendations with the highest degree of consensus (median = 10, IQR = 0.00) were

related to anti-smoking education, cardiovascular risk factor target control, and diabetic kidney disease. There were significant differences between family physicians and other specialties for some items. Conclusions. This study provides a set of recommendations for diabetes management agreed upon by specialists from different healthcare settings.