Quality-in-use characteristics for clinical decision support system assessment

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Software Quality Engineering
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) aid healthcare professionals in diagnosis and treatment decisions.
• Despite benefits, CDSS adoption faces challenges, necessitating robust quality evaluation for confident and secure use.
• Ensuring system quality is crucial for effective integration into clinical workflows.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a framework of (sub)characteristics for evaluating the quality-in-use of CDSSs.
• To base the proposed characteristics on the ISO/IEC 25010 standard and existing literature.
• To enhance the reliability and usability of CDSSs through a standardized quality assessment.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature review was conducted on existing CDSS assessment methodologies.
• Quality characteristics and sub-characteristics relevant to CDSS evaluation were identified and selected.
• An illustrative scenario was developed to demonstrate the assessment approach for key quality-in-use attributes.

Main Results:

• Ten overarching quality characteristics and 56 specific sub-characteristics were identified from the literature.
• Usability emerged as the most frequently evaluated quality aspect in CDSS assessments.
• Satisfaction and efficiency were highlighted as critical quality-in-use characteristics for CDSS evaluation.

Conclusions:

• The proposed quality assessment framework aims to bridge the gap between CDSS quality and their clinical adoption.
• Implementing this approach can lead to more reliable and user-centered CDSSs.
• This work contributes to improving the overall effectiveness and acceptance of CDSSs in healthcare settings.