MMI 406 - Clinical Decision Support
Clinical Decision Support (CDS) is has been a sharp divider of opinion on the future of electronic health records. With a limited understanding of the likelihood of benefit or harm from the analysis that a computer algorithm provides, many have presumed that either the 'computer must be right' and accept the answer without questions, that we won't need doctors any more, or that 'you can never trust the computer'. The statistical basis of CDS represents the 'heart' of evidence based medicine. Just as with our biological hearts, it's existence does not tell you anything about the quality of its function. On the other hand, having a well conditioned heart is necessary for optimal function of the body.
Clinical decision support is also a simple idea on top of a very complex business model which is used to troubleshoot and maintain a complex and incompletely understood biological system. For this reason it is critical that computerization of clinical decisions must be transparently done in the background. Users need to have simple, repetitive, critical decision options presented in obvious but unobtrusive ways so that the system works with them. By applying the capabilities of CDS in this way stakeholder support can more easily be garnered. Using these concepts, our team was able to develop a comprehensive plan for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a decision support system.
Creating a Medication Reconciliation process that used a flexible and comprehensive interface, similar but more functional than the current paper systems, would allow users to move quickly through the system with multiple background processes performing work that would otherwise not be feasible to accomplish. The danger of this is that providers need to trust the system or they will be overwhelmed with double checking the system.
I look forward to developing approaches that will help providers both understand and work with CDS in the future. This is the way that we can make information systems work for us. Critical to this approach will be increasing the general comfort level of users with statistical analysis and with the use of simple CD tools.
Syllabus MU Stage I Rule Decision Tree Paper Presentation MMI Overview Coursework Projects Home
* http://healthit.ahrq.gov/portal/server.pt/community/ahrq-funded_projects/654/clinical_decision_support_initiative/13665
Clinical decision support is also a simple idea on top of a very complex business model which is used to troubleshoot and maintain a complex and incompletely understood biological system. For this reason it is critical that computerization of clinical decisions must be transparently done in the background. Users need to have simple, repetitive, critical decision options presented in obvious but unobtrusive ways so that the system works with them. By applying the capabilities of CDS in this way stakeholder support can more easily be garnered. Using these concepts, our team was able to develop a comprehensive plan for the development, implementation, and evaluation of a decision support system.
Creating a Medication Reconciliation process that used a flexible and comprehensive interface, similar but more functional than the current paper systems, would allow users to move quickly through the system with multiple background processes performing work that would otherwise not be feasible to accomplish. The danger of this is that providers need to trust the system or they will be overwhelmed with double checking the system.
I look forward to developing approaches that will help providers both understand and work with CDS in the future. This is the way that we can make information systems work for us. Critical to this approach will be increasing the general comfort level of users with statistical analysis and with the use of simple CD tools.
Syllabus MU Stage I Rule Decision Tree Paper Presentation MMI Overview Coursework Projects Home
* http://healthit.ahrq.gov/portal/server.pt/community/ahrq-funded_projects/654/clinical_decision_support_initiative/13665