BMJ  2005;330:740-741 (2 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7494.740

Editorial

What makes a good clinical decision support system

We have some answers, but implementing good decision support is still hard

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Clinical decision support is the provision of "clinical knowledge and patient-related information, intelligently filtered or presented at appropriate times, to enhance patient care."¹ Medical institutions are increasingly adopting tools that offer decision support to improve patient outcomes and reduce errors. Healthcare providers and administrators with little or no training in computer science may be asked to evaluate, select, or contribute to the development of decision support systems for their practices. Is there an easy way to determine which clinical decision support systems are good?

In this issue Kawamoto and colleagues provide some evidence based guidance in a systematic analysis of the ability of decision support systems to improve practice in both statistically significant and clinically meaningful ways (p 765).² This rigorous review includes only randomised controlled trials and excludes small studies that do not meet 50% of established criteria for methodological quality.^{3 4} It identifies four independent predictors . . . [Full text of this article]

(gretchenpurcell@stanfordalumni.org) Division of Pediatric Surgery, Pittsburgh Children's Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Quality of clinical aspects of call handling at Dutch out of hours centres: cross sectional national study

Hay P Derkx, Jan-Joost E Rethans, Arno M Muijtjens, Bas H Maiburg, Ron Winkens, Harrie G van Rooij, and J André Knottnerus
BMJ 2008 337: a1264. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Improving clinical practice using clinical decision support systems: a systematic review of trials to identify features critical to success

Kensaku Kawamoto, Caitlin A Houlihan, E Andrew Balas, and David F Lobach
BMJ 2005 330: 765. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Derkx, H. P, Rethans, J.-J. E, Muijtjens, A. M, Maiburg, B. H, Winkens, R., van Rooij, H. G, Knottnerus, J A. (2008). Quality of clinical aspects of call handling at Dutch out of hours centres: cross sectional national study. BMJ 337: a1264-a1264 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Varonen, H., Kortteisto, T., Kaila, M., for the EBMeDS Study Group, (2008). What may help or hinder the implementation of computerized decision support systems (CDSSs): a focus group study with physicians. Fam Pract 25: 162-167 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Poels, P. J. P., Schermer, T. R. J., Schellekens, D. P. A., Akkermans, R. P., de Vries Robbe, P. F., Kaplan, A., Bottema, B. J. A. M., van Weel, C. (2008). Impact of a spirometry expert system on general practitioners' decision making. Eur Respir J 31: 84-92 [Abstract] [Full text]