decision support

Introduction

use of informatics to assist in medical decisions

Clinical significance

• decision-support tools & knowledge management systems at point of care should be an integral part of the healthcare system
• there is no substitute for knowing clinical guidelines, understanding the evidence & incorporating it into practice however; there are so many scores, guidelines, & tools that it seems improbable that any one clinician can know them all
• the only real solution is a robust, easy-to-use clinical decision support embedded into the electronic medical record & provider workflow
• computerised physician order entry with clinical decision support is associated with clinically important reductions in the rate of high-risk prescribing errors

Additional terms

• American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)