"The 2007 Resource Guide," various authors, Diabetes Forecast, January 2007.

The "Resource Guide" is special supplement to Diabetes Forecast that comes out every year and features comments on and comparisons of all the available products for managing diabetes. This is a very useful, one-stop information guide that will be great to keep around all year. It consolidates both basic and specific information in a readable, thorough, and organized format for easy reference. One of our favorite sections of the guide is "New Products," which showcases devices, drugs, and supplies that have come out in the past year. For people with type 2, the section on different types of oral medications will be particularly useful — cleverly, it is titled "Class Action" to signify the many classes of medications now available. We were also thrilled to see a section on combination pills, which combine two drugs of different classes into single pills. Combination pills are growing as doctors become more disillusioned with monotherapy and enamored with "combination therapy." For the patient, the single co-pay is also a nice bonus! The guide also discusses injectable drugs, like Byetta and Symlin, in the section on insulin.

The bottom line: This is an excellent guide on the available treatment options for diabetes. See how your pump, oral medication, meter, or pen compares to others.