Predicting the Need for Basal-Bolus Insulin in Hospitalized Patients With Hyperglycemia: Is Sliding Scale Sometimes the Answer?

摘要

Uncontrolled blood glucose (BG) is associated with increased risk of infection, complications, and mortality in hospitalized patients. American Diabetes Association guidelines currently recommend basal insulin for all hospitalized, non-critically ill patients requiring insulin and state that “use of only a sliding scale insulin regimen in the inpatient hospital setting is strongly discouraged”. In practice, however, sliding scale only is used not infrequently. Here, we challenge the recommendation for universal basal insulin use and leverage machine learning to predict which inpatients would indeed benefit from basal insulin at time of admission.