Guidance for Incorporating Updates to the Living Standards
Beginning with the 2018 ADA Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes, the Standards document will be a “living” document where notable updates are incorporated into the Standards, as determined appropriate by the Professional Practice Committee (PPC). Updates will be made in response to important events inclusive of, but not limited to:
- Approval of new treatments (medications or devices) with the potential to impact patient care;
- Publication of new findings that support a change to a recommendation and/or evidence level of a recommendation; or
- Publication of a consensus document endorsed by ADA that necessitates an update of the Standards to align content of the documents.
Recommendations for living Standards updates can be generated from:
- Submitted comments received via the ADA website;
- A recommendation from a member of the PPC; or
- A recommendation from a staff member of ADA.
Once a living Standards update recommendation has been received by the ADA home office and/or the PPC Chair:
1. A proposed language change will be drafted within the relevant section(s) of the most current Standards.
2. A narrative summary and justification (with supporting literature) and the proposed living Standards update will be distributed to the PPC for review.
3. An email vote will be taken from members of the PPC to determine:
- Is the change sufficiently notable to warrant a living Standards update?
- Is/are the proposed edit(s) acceptable as proposed, or are there any suggestions for revision?
- A majority vote (>50% agreement) of the PPC will be required to ratify a proposed living Standards update.
4. If a proposed living Standards update is approved by a PPC majority, the PPC Chair will submit a final summary of the approved change to ADA for processing.
5. A description of the updates will be published in an Addendum, and the Standards of Care online and, when appropriate, the Clinical Diabetes abridged Standards, will be updated with the new information.
6. ADA will update the Standards slide deck, Standards app, professional education programs, and selected other materials to be consistent with Living" Standards updates.