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Clinical Decision Support

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 38 Accesses

Synonyms

CDS; Decision support

Definition

Clinical Decision Support systems are computer systems which assist humans in making optimal clinical decisions. While clinical decision support systems are most often designed for clinicians, they can also be developed to assist patients or caregivers. Common examples of clinical decision support systems include drug-drug interaction checks, dose range checking for medication and preventive care reminders.

Historical Background

The first clinical decision support system was described in 1959 by Robert Ledley and Lee Lusted [6] in their paper “Reasoning foundations of medical diagnosis; symbolic logic, probability, and value theory aid our understanding of how physicians reason.” Ledley and Lusted described an analog computer used to sort cards containing a diagnosis and a series of punches which represented symptoms. By selecting the cards which matched the symptoms present in a given case a clinician could develop a possible set of diagnosis.

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Recommended Reading

  1. Bates DW, Kuperman GJ, Wang S, et al. Ten commandments for effective clinical decision support: making the practice of evidence-based medicine a reality. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2003;10(6):523–30.

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  2. Garg AX, Adhikari NK, McDonald H, et al. Effects of computerized clinical decision support systems on practitioner performance and patient outcomes: a systematic review. JAMA. 2005;293(10):1223–38.

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  3. Kawamoto K, Houlihan CA, Balas EA, Lobach DF. Improving clinical practice using clinical decision support systems: a systematic review of trials to identify features critical to success. BMJ. 2005;330(7494):765.

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  4. Kawamoto K , Lobach DF. Design, implementation, use, and preliminary evaluation of SEBASTIAN, a standards-based web service for clinical decision support. In: Proceedings of the AMIA Symposium; 2005. p. 380–4.

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  5. Kuperman GJ, Gardner RM, Pryor TA. HELP: a dynamic hospital information system. New York: Springer; 1991.

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  6. Ledley RS, Lusted LB. Reasoning foundations of medical diagnosis; symbolic logic, probability, and value theory aid our understanding of how physicians reason. Science. 1959;130(3366):9–21.

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  7. McDonald CJ. Protocol-based computer reminders, the quality of care and the non-perfectability of man. N Engl J Med. 1976;295(24):1351–5.

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  8. Miller RA, Pople HE, Myers JD. Internist-1, an experimental computer-based diagnostic consultant for general internal medicine. N Engl J Med. 1982;307(8):468–76.

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  9. Osheroff JA, Pifer EA, Sittig DF, Jenders RA, Teich JM. Improving outcomes with clinical decision support: an implementers’ guide. Chicago: HIMSS; 2005.

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  10. Osheroff JA, Teich JM, Middleton B, Steen EB, Wright A, Detmer DE. A roadmap for national action on clinical decision support. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2007;14(2):141–5.

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  11. Sittig DF, Wright A, Osheroff JA, et al. Grand challenges in clinical decision support. J Biomed Inform. 2007;41(2):387–92.

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  13. Wright A, Goldberg H, Hongsermeier T, Middleton B. A description and functional taxonomy of rule-based decision support content at a large integrated delivery network. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2007;14(4):489–96.

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  14. Wright A, Sittig DF. SANDS: a service-oriented architecture for clinical decision support in a National Health Information Network. J Biomed Inform. 2008;41(6). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbi.2008.03.001.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Partners HealthCare, Boston, MA, USA

    Adam Wright

Authors
  1. Adam Wright
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adam Wright .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Director, Clinical Programs, CIGNA Healthcare, Bloomfield, Connecticut, USA

    Vipul Kashyap

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Wright, A. (2018). Clinical Decision Support. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_382

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