Jay H. Shubrook, DO: Hello, I am Jay Shubrook, Family Physician and Professor at Touro University California. We are presenting here from the 78th American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Florida. I am here today with Dr Baruch Itzhak, who is a specialist in family medicine and a diabetologist in the primary care setting in northern Israel. We have a really interesting topic to talk about today. In the United States, there are many different guidelines for diabetes. Right now, we have a little bit of a guideline controversy because the guidelines do not all agree with each other. For me, this was really a great opportunity to learn about other guidelines. What are the guidelines that you follow in Israel?
Baruch Itzhak, MD: We are following the Israeli national plan for the prevention and treatment of diabetes that was developed by the Israel National Council of Diabetes.[1]The [recommendations in the guideline] are actually based on the body mass index (BMI) of the patients [with 3 BMI ranges]. First strategies, of course, are lifestyle management and then metformin. As a second line, there are three possibilities for treating patients according to their BMI. For example, one group includes patients with a BMI between 27 and 30 kg/m
