Clinical Inertia as a Clinical Safeguard
- Dario Giugliano, MD, PhD;
- Katherine Esposito, MD, PhD
- Author Affiliations: Department of Geriatrics and Metabolic Diseases, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy.
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- BLOOD PRESSURE
- CHOLESTEROL, LDL
- CLINICAL MEDICINE
- CLINICIAN'S CORNER
- DIABETES MELLITUS
- DYSLIPIDEMIAS
- GUIDELINES AS TOPIC
- HEMOGLOBIN A, GLYCOSYLATED
- HYPERTENSION
- PATIENT SAFETY
Inertia is the resistance of a physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest. Phillips et al1 have described clinical inertia as “failure of health care providers to initiate or intensify therapy when indicated.” Although clinical inertia may apply to all medical fields, given the lag time between advances in clinical understanding and incorporation into clinical guidelines, as well as the other time needed for the translation of clinical guidelines into clinical practice, Phillips et al1 intended to limit the discussion of inertia to disorders in which abnormal values may be the only manifestation of the disease, such as diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Main causes of clinical inertia include overestimation of care provided, use of “soft” reasons to avoid intensification of therapy (incorrect perception of clinical improvement, dietary nonadherence, and concerns about translation of clinical trials results to individual patients), and lack of understanding …
