An Introduction to Clinical Decision Support Systems

Abstract

Library support of clinical decision making ranges from passive (traditional library collections of books and journals) to highly active (professional services, such as clinical medical librarians, LATCH, and informationists). Support of mobile computing resources and subscriptions to point-of-care services, such as UpToDate® and DynaMed®, moves libraries toward interactive resources to aid health care providers in their decisions about specific patient questions but stops short of the tools described herein that specifically support clinical decision making. Librarians seeking to add robust clinical decision support systems should partner with clinicians and medical educators to weigh usability, ability to integrate with electronic health records and other systems, accuracy, reliability, depth of knowledge base, and improvements to process and patient outcomes, along with costs, which can be substantial.

KEYWORDS:

• CDSSs
• clinical decision support systems
• DDSSs
• diagnostic decision support systems

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mary Moore

Mary Moore, PhD ([email protected]) is Chair of the Department of Health Informatics and Executive Director, Louis Calder Memorial Library and Biomedical Communications, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, P.O. Box 016950 (R-950), Miami, FL 33101.

Kimberly A. Loper

Kimberly A. Loper, MLIS, ([email protected]) is Special Projects and Digital Initiatives Librarian, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, P.O. Box 016950 (R-950), Miami, FL 33101.