As an optometrist interested in the evolution of my profession to include more primary health care, I have my Healio email subscriptions and alerts set to receive the Primary Care News Wire. Although I often just skim these articles, I sometimes find an item of interest that has implications for optometry. Such was the case last month when I read, “New diabetes guideline reflects change in glucose therapy considerations.” Published online on Jan. 22, 2020, this article will affect my doctoring of patients with diabetes as well as those at risk for developing the disease.

The new guidelines recommend that providers look beyond patient’s glucose control, as measured by HbA1c, and add medicines that improve cardiovascular and renal outcomes for patients at risk for these complications. The particular medicines that received an “A” grade, indicating the highest level of evidence behind the recommendation, were SGLT2 inhibitors or GLP-1 receptor agonist.