In the current digital era, undoubtedly, advanced technology influences the healthcare industry in many positive ways. Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS), used by physicians is a program module that helps them make decisions at the point of care. They face complex decision-making processes in their daily life, but with CDSS, there is patient safety and reduced misdiagnoses.
In this industry, the right decisions save lives, while the wrong ones lead to grave consequences.
What is the Clinical Decision Support System?
Primarily used at the point of care, CDSS improves overall healthcare delivery by enhancing medical decisions with targeted clinical knowledge, information of the patient and other health information.
It examines Electronic Health Records (EHRs) data to provide prompts and reminders. This assists physician in implementing evidence-based clinical guidelines. Since the first use of this system in the 1970s, it has seen a significant transformation over the years as technology evolved.
What are the two types of CDSS?
- Knowledge-based
Commonly operating under the if-then rules, most knowledge-based CDSSs have a data repository, an inference engine, and a mechanism of communication. It basically applies rules to patient data using an inference engine and then displays the results.
- Non-knowledge based
This type of CDSS relies on machine learning tech to analyze clinical data as it doesn’t have a knowledge base.
What are the benefits of CDSS?
CDSS effectively impacts the healthcare system’s overall quality, efficiency, and safety. It is positively changing the healthcare industry from reducing medication errors to saving a lot of bucks.
- Improving patient treatment
It improves the overall treatment of the patient. Starting from the early detection of infection to delivering insights for highly personalized therapy, it plays a vital role. Moreover, it provides several decision support modes, including reminders, alerts, advice, and suggestions for much more efficient care.
- Reduces medication errors
As per a study, around 7000 to 9000 patients in the USA (United States of America) die annually just because of medication errors. Not only this, but due to this, many people even suffer from complications. However, computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems have been created to prevent errors, and the addition of Clinical Decision Support System has reduced the error rates. Notably, it targets the ordering stage, as the errors occur mostly at this stage.
- Cost-effective
By improving overall patient care and reducing medication errors, this system helps in saving a lot of bucks. This is because it improves patient care by nullifying unnecessary tests and minimizing medication expenditure.Â
- Treatment choice
It supports physicians in choosing the optimal treatment for efficacy, safety and cost. This process may be based on reference treatment protocols that measure outcomes and quantify the risks associated with treatment.Â
