The architecture of a decision support system

A Decision Support System (DSS) begun in the middle 1960s is described. A DSS collects data for an institution servicing clients, calculates decisions and generates reports on the status of the clients. This paper was written to provide a historical record of the concepts developed. In Part I, we introduce the Decision Support System (DSS), describe its functions, and indicate a possible architecture for such a system. Part 2 describes the concepts developed in the course of programming an experimental system called the Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS). CDSS, which is designed for a medical environment and has been tested at several sites on an experimental basis. The CDSS implementation of a DSS is described in some detail.