A medical informatics perspective on decision support systems. Findings from the yearbook 2012 section on decision...

To summarize current excellent research in the field of computer-based decision support systems in health and healthcare.

We provide a synopsis of the articles selected for the IMIA Yearbook 2012, from which we attempt to draft a synthetic overview of the activity and new trends in the field.

While the state of the research in the field of medical decision support systems is illustrated by a set of fairly heterogeneous studies, it is possible to identify fundamental aspects of the fields, e.g. Decision Support Systems for Computerized Provider Order Entry, both for physicians and pharmacists, as well as more specific developments such as instruments to improve processing of data related to Clinical Trials and applications to capture family health history.

The best paper selection of articles on decision support shows examples of excellent research on methods concerning original development as well as quality assurance of previously reported studies. This selected set of scientific investigations clearly question the way decision support systems are deployed in clinical environments as these systems seem to have little impact on patient safety and even could harm the patient. Furthermore, while significant research efforts are invested into translational & "omics" medicine, it is interesting to observe that simple data capture applications can reasonably lead to positive changes in healthcare.