Developing an Interactive Data Visualization Tool to Assess the Impact of Decision Support on Clinical Operations

Area of Science:

• Radiology Informatics
• Health Data Analytics
• Clinical Decision Support Systems

Background:

• Recent legislation mandates the adoption of clinical decision support (CDS) software in radiology practices.
• CDS software offers imaging study decision support to referring providers at the point of order entry.
• These systems generate substantial data, presenting opportunities for research and quality improvement initiatives.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an interactive data visualization dashboard for analyzing trends in CDS-generated data.
• To enhance the visualization and analysis of data from clinical decision support software.
• To facilitate hypothesis generation and streamline research efforts.

Main Methods:

• Integrated a commercially available CDS product into the electronic health record.
• Created an interactive dashboard using a commercial data visualization platform (Tableau).
• Exported CDS-generated data from the data warehouse into the visualization platform for real-time analysis.

Main Results:

• The dashboard enabled real-time visualization of data generated by the CDS software.
• Analysis of CDS output became more accessible.
• Facilitated hypothesis generation for further research and quality improvement.

Conclusions:

• Integrating data visualization tools with CDS enhances data analysis capabilities.
• Interactive dashboards streamline research and quality improvement efforts in radiology.
• This approach supports better utilization of data generated by clinical decision support systems.