Examining clinical decision support integrity: is clinician self-reported data entry accurate?

This is a review of the 2004 article titled, Examining clinical decision support integrity: is clinician self-reported data entry accurate?, published by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Background

As meaningful use compliance is non the rise by health care organizations, clinical decisions support systems are on the rise to be mandated by the federal government. CDS systems are considered to be an important tool for improving evidence based-practice and patient care and their integrity and relevance is always in question. The reason behind this is because they are dependent on the clinical data input that is entered by clinicians. For instance, inaccurate CPOE (computerized provider order entry) can lead to erroneous CDS recommendations and testing. According to the authors, the accuracy of CPOE data entered into a CDS can be tested with a strong, robust, evidence-based CDS system.

Objective

The objective of the study was to determine the accuracy and effects of clinician data entry-dependent CDS designed to guide evidence-based use of CT angiography (CTA ) for ED patients with suspected pulmonary embolus (PE).