Developing SNOMED-CT for decision making and data gathering: a software prototype for low back pain

The issue of medical errors is currently a global concern which places a heavy financial and emotional burden on communities. A clinical decision support system (CDSS) is an electronic system designed to support clinical decision making. Considering the increasing importance and use of Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine-Clinical Terms (SNOMED-CT), we developed SNOMED-CT to implement it more efficiently in making smart history taking, decisions to perform lab tests and imaging, diagnosis and recommendations. To evaluate these capabilities in real clinical problems, a new CDSS was compiled, aimed at supporting decisions on patients with a chief complaint of low back pain (LBP). A number of LBP differential diagnoses as well as some recommended indications and contraindications published by guidelines, were inputted to the database. Future software based on this model would help physicians to do necessary assessments and recommendations and might improve patients' safety.