Table 1.

Overview of cohorts

	Amsterdam	Austin	BayCare	Birmingham	Geelong	Okayama	Stamford	Tufts	Vienna
Number of patients	1,660	1,172	19,738	5,529	4,562	3,601	5,032	2,290	1,440
Dates of admission to the ICU	1/09-12/09	10/09-3/11	7/07-6/10	4/09-3/12	9/05-12/10	4/08-6/11	10/05-6/11	3/10-5/12	2/01-3/09
Number and type of ICUs	Single 32-bed medical-surgical ICU of a university teaching hospital	Single 21-bed medical-surgical ICU of a university-affiliated teaching hospital	8 community-based hospitals, including 13 ICUs of mixed types, totaling 227 beds	Single 82-bed mixed (medical, surgical, cardiac, neurosciences, trauma, burns, and transplant) ICU of a university teaching hospital	Single 18-bed medical-surgical ICU of a university-affiliated teaching hospital	Two medical-surgical ICUs (total 22 beds) of a university-affiliated teaching hospital	Single 16-bed medical-surgical ICU of a university-affiliated teaching hospital	Single 10-bed surgical ICU of a university-affiliated teaching hospital	Single eight-bed medical ICU of a university hospital
Organizational details of centers	"Closed" format with intensivists supervising a team of critical care fellows, medical and surgical residents	Intensivist managed	All "Open" policy ICUs with mandate of critical care consult for all non-pure cardiac admission	Intensivist managed	Intensivist managed	Intensivist managed	Intensivist managed, with medical and surgical residents	Intensivist managed, with medical and surgical residents	Medical intensivist managed, with medical residents
Glycemic targets	90-144 mg/dl	108-180 mg/dl	70-110 mg/dl from 1/20/05-10/1/2008 then 80-150 mg/dl up to 10/1/2011 then 100-160 mg/dl	<180 mg/dl	a. Prior to April 2009: 4.1-8.0 mM (73.9-144.1 mg/dl) b. After April 2009: 7.1-10.0 mM (127.9-180.2 mg/dl)	<180 mg/dl	80-140 mg/dl from 10/1/05 to 1/10/07 80-125 mg/dl from 1/11/07 to 6/30/11	95-135 mg/dl since February 2002	<180 mg/dl to 06/03 80-110 mg/dl from 06/03-01/09 110-150 mg/dl from 01/09
Type of BG monitor	100% ABG analyzer (RapidLab 1200)	100% ABG analyzer	100% Accu-Chek Inform glucometers	100% ABG analyzer	100% ABG (Instrumentation Laboratory GEM 4000)	100% ABG analyzer	85% Accu-Chek Inform glucometers. 13% ABG analyzer 2% Central lab analyzer	98% Accu-check glucometer; 2% Central Lab analyzer	100% ABG analyzer
Source of blood	100% arterial	Venous or arterial blood	Capillary, venous, or arterial blood	98% arterial, 2% central venous	Arterial or venous blood	Venous or arterial blood	75% capillary 25% venous or arterial	70% Arterial, 23% central venous, and 2% capillary	100% arterial
Data acquisition	The blood glucose levels were extracted from the patient data-management system (MetaVision, iMDsoft, Israel). Other patient data were extracted from the National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE) database, maintained by the NICE Foundation (reference: Arts D, de Keizer N, Scheffer GJ, de Jonge E. Quality of data collected for severity-of-illness scores in the Dutch National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE) registry. Intensive Care Med 2002, 28:656-659.)	Glucose values captured automatically from arterial blood gas analyzers linked to hospital information system. Demographic and clinical data manually entered by trained data analysts into Australian National Adult Intensive Care database	ICUTracker Database linked to the hospital data systems	Glucose values captured automatically from arterial blood gas analyzers linked to hospital information system. Demographic and clinical data manually entered by trained data analysts into hospital database.	Glucose values captured automatically from arterial blood gas analyzers linked to hospital information system Demographic and clinical data manually entered by trained data analysts into Australian National Adult Intensive Care database	GAIA Database (Nihon Koden, Japan)	Comprehensive clinical database created in the ICU and linked to the hospital data systems	Glucostabilizer software program and ICUTracker Database.	Combination of clinical ward database (developed on the ICU) with BG-data retrieved from the ABG analyzer