Purpose of review: Patients with diabetes must deal with the burden of symptoms and complications (burden of illness). Simultaneously, diabetes care demands practical and emotional work from patients and their families, work to access and use healthcare and to enact self-care (burden of treatment). Patient work must compete with the demands of family, job, and community life. Overwhelmed patients may not have the capacity to access care or enact self-care and will thus experience suboptimal diabetes outcomes. Recent findings: Minimally disruptive medicine (MDM) is a patient-centered approach to healthcare that prioritizes patients’ goals for life and health while minimizing the healthcare disruption on patients’ lives. Summary: In patients with diabetes, particularly in those with complex lives and multimorbidity, MDM coordinates healthcare and community responses to improve outcomes, reduce treatment burden, and enable patients to pursue their life’s hopes and dreams.