Factors Driving Resistance to Clinical Decision Support: Finding Inspiration in Radiology 3.0

The effectiveness of evidence-based guidelines (EBGs) and clinical decision support (CDS) is significantly hampered by widespread clinician resistance to it. Our study was designed to better understand the reasons for this resistance to CDS and explore the factors that drive it.

We used a mixed-methods approach to explore and identify the drivers of resistance for CDS among clinicians, including a web-based multispecialty survey exploring clinicians' impressions of the strengths and weaknesses of CDS, two clinician focus groups, and several one-on-one focused clinician interviews in which individual participants were asked to comment on their rationale for choosing imaging utilization that might not be supported by EBGs. Additionally, a unique electronic learning and assessment module known as Amplifire was used to probe clinician knowledge gaps regarding EBGs and CDS.

In both the quantitative and qualitative portions of the study, the primary factor driving resistance to CDS was a desire to order studies not supported by EBGs, primarily for the purpose of reducing the clinician's diagnostic uncertainty.

Our results suggest that to enhance the effectiveness of CDS, we must first address the issue of clinician discomfort with diagnostic uncertainty and the role of imaging via educational outreach and ongoing radiologist consultation.