Curtis Triplitt, PharmD, on Patient-Centered Diabetes Care

In this interview, Curtis Triplitt, PharmD, associate professor and assistant dean of research, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Permian Basin, explains why diabetes should be treated with a patient-centered approach. This means that therapies should be based on an individual, not a population. Patient-centered approaches require payer and provider to examine a patient’s specific characteristics and needs such as race, gender, comorbidities, and motivation. “You take those different characteristics of a patient, apply them to a particular drug, and see if they fit,” said Dr Triplitt. He compared prescribing a DPP-4 inhibitor, a well- tolerated once-a day-oral medication that fits well in a large population, with pramlintide, used in combination with insulin and in a smaller population.