Module Components

• Overview
• Assignments

Topics

• Decision Theories
• Clinical Decision Support Systems
• Clinical Decision Support Systems - Examples
• Clinical Decision Support Systems - Benefits and Challenges
• References

Nurs 460 - HEALTH INFORMATICS FOR REGISTERED NURSES

Module 6: Technology to Support Decision-Making

Clinical Decision Support Systems - Benefits and Challenges

Learning Activities

See what others are saying about Clinical Decision Support Systems at these links:

Advantages of CDSS (0.58) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCIfWFNs0to&index=69&list=PLa51jV23wDZhwHep1wU__5nIVaR79QHU3
Clinical Decision Support System Concerns (1.30) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9McvIx6XVLU

CDSS Benefits and Challenges

The benefits and challenges of CDSS include:

Decision support systems (DSS) are generally dependent on functioning “lower level” transaction processing systems or information systems of some kind for optimal utility. In healthcare, such “lower level” information would come from the various EHR applications. Decision Support Systems are in use in a great many industries – financial, banking, oil and gas, airlines, and healthcare, just to name a few. This is partly because the benefits outweigh the challenges associated with DSS.

Clinical Decision Support Systems are not widely used in healthcare but are emerging as a critical component in EHR adoption. Because CDSS is dependent on lower level systems to function, healthcare organizations are trying to get their transaction processing systems (e.g., billing systems) and information systems modules (e.g., order entry/results retrieval/documentation) to work across enterprises. Until these types of systems are broadly accessible, healthcare enterprises will have difficulty creating or implementing CDSS to the fullest extent.

The second reason CDSS is not in wider use in healthcare is that CDSSs are generally more successful when they are domain specific or narrowly focused. For example, MYCIN, one of the first CDSS success stories, was very focused. It helped physicians to diagnose and treat meningitis and other closely related bacterial infections. It did not assist in treating infections of every kind. That would have been too general.

NOTE: Back in the 1960’s supporters of CDSS even envisioned “general problem solving” DSSs. In healthcare, this took the form of general diagnosis CDSSs. In this type of CDSS, given your symptoms the system could diagnose your problem. In addition, those in health informatics interested in building or expanding on existing CDSS are awaiting further building out of the EHR. Once the EHR is built out sufficiently, the exciting, beneficial CDSS area of health informatics will again be in the forefront.