Overview

Welcome to the Portland Diabetes Project, home of The Portland Protocol. Beginning in 1987, our research team, based at Providence Heart and Vascular Institute, has been investigating the relationship between inpatient hyperglycemia (high blood glucose levels) and hospital outcomes in diabetic cardiac surgery patients. Our team was the first to show that hyperglycemia was the significant causal factor for the increased risks of death, infection and length of hospital stay in the diabetic patient population. Conversely, we were also the first to show that the elimination of hyperglycemia with the use of an intravenous insulin infusion for three perioperative days eradicates the incremental increases in these complications, which were previously ascribed to the risk factor “diabetes.”

Our work has resulted in The Portland Protocol – a finely tuned set of orders for intravenous insulin infusions in hospitalized patients, for use both in the intensive care units and on the wards. The Portland Protocol has been in use since 1992 and it has been successfully used at institutions throughout the world to control hyperglycemia. Since that time The Portland Protocol has been repeatedly modified and honed to provide what we believe is the tightest, most efficient, and safest tight glycemic control of any insulin protocol available.

The Portland Protocol

The Portland Protocol – a finely tuned set of orders for intravenous insulin infusions in hospitalized patients, for use both in the intensive care units and on the wards. The Portland Protocol has been in use since 1992 and it has been successfully used at institutions throughout the world to control hyperglycemia. Since that time The Portland Protocol has been repeatedly modified and honed to provide what we believe is the tightest, most efficient, and safest tight glycemic control of any insulin protocol available.