Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) bring patient-specific information and clinical knowledge together to support decisions during care. This lesson introduces what CDSSs do, how clinicians use them, and the main ways they are classified.
A clinical decision support system is a form of health information technology that provides clinicians, staff, patients, or others with knowledge and person-specific information to improve decision-making in clinical workflows. It is an active knowledge system: it uses patient-data variables to generate advice relevant to health care.
All flashcards
Clinical decision support system (CDSS)
Health information technology that uses patient-specific information and clinical knowledge or learned patterns to support health-care decisions.
Clinician-CDSS collaboration
The system presents information or suggestions; the clinician evaluates them in light of expertise and patient context.
Knowledge-based CDSS
A system that uses explicitly represented clinical knowledge, such as rules and associations, to support decisions.
Non-knowledge-based CDSS
A system that uses machine learning to identify patterns in data rather than relying on manually authored clinical rules.
Alert fatigue
Reduced attention to warnings that can occur when many alerts make important ones easier to overlook.
Quiz questions
Which component of a knowledge-based CDSS applies stored rules to patient data?Answer: The inference engine.
What is the role of a diagnosis decision support system (DDSS)?Answer: It uses patient information to suggest possible diagnoses.
A CDSS that reviews or filters preliminary diagnostic choices is used at what stage?Answer: During diagnosis.
Which feature was associated with improved practitioner performance in reviews of CDSS design?Answer: Automatic electronic prompts rather than requiring users to activate the system.
What did a 2014 systematic review report about the risk of death when CDSS was combined with an EHR?Answer: It did not find a reduction in the risk of death.