The literature on diabetes mellitus has increasingly focused on the quality
of diabetes care and its measurement. Serious and widespread quality probl
ems exist throughout American medicine. Current efforts to improve will not
succeed unless we undertake a major, systematic effort to overhaul how we
deliver health care services, educate and train clinicians, and assess and
improve quality. This article defines the components of quality of diabetes
care provision and discusses approaches to their measurement individually
and globally.