According to the 2016 Hypoglycemia Quality Collaborative Strategic Blueprint, published by the Endocrine Society, people with diabetes and providers across the entire healthcare team lack the knowledge and tools to prevent and manage hypoglycemia – whether therapy-associated or spontaneous. Importantly, people with diabetes who experience the worst outcomes are often lower socioeconomic status minorities who lack access to the system and have lower health literacy.  

The HQC Strategic Blueprint is an actionable document and evergreen resource for diabetes stakeholders to identify and contextualize opportunities to work together to reduce the incidence of hypoglycemia. It contains six key domains that together create a comprehensive framework for reducing the incidence of hypoglycemia:

• Defining and Describing Hypoglycemia to Support Standards of Care
• Advancing Hypoglycemia Evidence to Reduce Gaps in Care
• Measuring and Improving Quality of Care for Patients who Experience Hypoglycemia 
• Advocating for Increased Focus on Hypoglycemia
• Delivering Hypoglycemia Prevention and Management Education
• Recognizing Hypoglycemia as a Public Health Issue

Additionally, ADCES joined other stakeholders to discuss and define clinically relevant outcomes beyond hemoglobin A1c in the Standardizing Clinically Meaningful Outcome Measures Beyond HbA1c for Type 1 Diabetes: A Consensus Report. This report provides a new evidence-based, consensus definition of hypoglycemia, including levels of hypoglycemia and their related glycemic criteria. Additionally, signs and symptoms of hypoglycemia at each level are discussed.