Diana Brixner, Ph.D., B.Pharm., FAMCP

Panelists discuss how autoantibody testing has high diagnostic accuracy with nearly 100% conversion to hyperglycemia when two or more antibodies are present, though timing of testing is crucial and retesting may be necessary since antibody levels can fluctuate over time.

Panelists discuss how to improve diagnostic accuracy through increased awareness and education among healthcare providers, simplifying antibody testing processes and identifying high-risk patients who should be screened for type 1 diabetes, including those with family history or other autoimmune conditions.

Panelists discuss how patients with prior type 2 diabetes misdiagnosis showed significantly higher healthcare utilization rates across all categories (inpatient admissions, emergency visits, outpatient visits, lab procedures, and medications) compared to those correctly diagnosed with type 1 diabetes from the beginning.

Panelists discuss how their study compared healthcare resource utilization between newly diagnosed patients with type 1 diabetes with and without prior type 2 diabetes misdiagnosis, using a retrospective claims database analysis to examine utilization patterns across different healthcare services.

Panelists discuss how type 1 diabetes is diagnosed using autoantibody testing and the challenges clinicians face, including the common misdiagnosis of adults with type 1 diabetes as having type 2 diabetes due to age bias and the misconception that type 1 diabetes only occurs in childhood.