Continuing Educational Inertia?

According to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007–2010 data, 52.5% of patients with diabetes obtained an A1C < 7%.1 Less than 7% is not the goal for all patients, but it is for the majority; therefore, numerous patients are not achieving goals.One proposed reason health care providers (HCPs) struggle to get patients to goal is clinical inertia. Clinical inertia is defined as recognition of the problem, but failure to act.2 Clinical inertia leads to delivery of suboptimal care and is complicated by many factors, including access to care, insurance formularies, and patient adherence.What if there is another reason that is never discussed? I believe another reason patients are not reaching their goals is something I am calling “educational inertia.” I define educational inertia as learning information in an attempt to improve clinical skills from data that are clinically inaccurate or outdated. This misinformation is then applied to patient care, resulting in poor outcomes. Every effort is needed to stop educational inertia and thus to arm HCPs with the current knowledge and skills essential to get patients to goal in a challenging health care environment.I identified educational inertia while attending two diabetes association annual meetings in …