Advances in Clinical Decision Support Systems: Contributions from the 2022 Literature

To summarize significant research contributions published in 2022 in the field of clinical decision support (CDS) systems and select the best papers for the Decision Support section of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) Yearbook 2023.

A renewed search query for identifying CDS scholarship was developed using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and related keywords. The query was executed in PubMed in January 2023. The search results were reviewed in three stages by two reviewers: title-based triaging, followed by abstract screening, and then full text review. The resulting articles were sent for external review to identity best paper candidates.

A total of 1,939 articles related to CDS were retrieved. Of these, 11 articles were selected as candidates for best papers. The general themes of the final three best papers are (1) reducing documentation burden through in-line guidance for clinical notes, (2) clinician engagement for continuous improvement of CDS, and (3) mitigating healthcare-related carbon emissions using scalable and accessible CDS, respectively.

The field of clinical decision support remains highly active and dynamic, with innovative contributions to a range of clinical domains from primary to acute care. Interoperability issues, documentation burden, clinician acceptance, and the need for effective integration into existing healthcare workflows are among the prominent challenges and areas of interest faced by CDS implementation efforts.