The Silent Killer in Chronic Care: Therapeutic Inertia
How delayed treatment decisions cost lives and what AI can do about it
Therapeutic inertia is everywhere. And it's deadly.
Diabetes is just one area where therapeutic inertia wreaks havoc — but it's a perfect example of the systemic problem.
The American Diabetes Association defines therapeutic inertia as:
"the failure to initiate or intensify therapy when treatment goals are not being met."
It sounds simple, but the consequences are devastating. Studies show treatment intensification in type 2 diabetes is delayed by an average of 1–2 years, sometimes even longer.
Each delay increases the risk of complications — kidney failure, amputations, and avoidable hospitalizations.
Terri's Story: Data without action
Terri, my neighbor, has worn a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) for over two years. Every day, it captures thousands of blood sugar readings — peaks, valleys, trends.
But there's a problem. None of that data is contextual.
It doesn't show when she ate, her insulin doses, or activity levels. Her doctor — overwhelmed and constrained by an 11-minute visit — can't turn raw numbers into meaningful care adjustments.
In over two years, Terri's treatment hasn't been adjusted once. She's over-basalized, with erratic glucose levels that put her at growing risk.
A reminder of what's at stake: Terri's husband, Carl, also had diabetes. He saw the same doctor. Without timely intervention, Carl developed kidney failure, lost both feet to amputation, and eventually passed away from diabetes-related complications. Now, Terri faces the same risks — and millions of others do too.
The problem isn't lack of data. It's lack of actionable insight.
Modern devices like CGMs and traditional meters generate mountains of data. But data alone doesn't fix therapeutic inertia.
Doctors need tools that cut through the noise and translate raw numbers into clear, patient-specific actions.
As the ADA warns:
"The failure to act on available data remains a major barrier to optimal outcomes in diabetes care." – American Diabetes Association
A multi-layered solution for a multi-layered problem
At Avicenna Diagnostics, we took Terri's data and funneled it through our AI-powered platform. In seconds, the system surfaced key issues — over-basalization, missed post-meal spikes, and trends her doctor never had time to uncover.
Our smart meter revealed additional critical patterns — timing mismatches between meals and injections, activity-related glucose fluctuations, and dosage opportunities her doctor never had the tools to identify.
If her doctor had implemented these recommendations over the past two years, Terri would be in a much better place by now.
Our multi-tier platform—SennaOne, SennaMD, and SennaEnterprise—addresses therapeutic inertia at every level of care.
The cost of inaction is too high
While this story focuses on diabetes, therapeutic inertia is a systemic challenge across chronic care — from hypertension to heart disease to COPD. Millions of patients like Terri are caught in the same cycle: endless data generation with no meaningful change in care.
Carl's outcome was avoidable. Terri's still is.
The technology exists. The data exists. What's been missing is the bridge between information and decisive clinical action.
That's what we've built.
Whether you're a patient waiting for answers, a physician navigating overwhelming data, or a healthcare system striving for better outcomes — we provide solutions that turn insight into action.
It's time to break the cycle of therapeutic inertia.