Using technology acceptance model to explore physicians' perspectives of clinical decision support system alerts.

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Medical Decision Making
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) provide alerts to aid physicians.
• Physician acceptance of CDSS alerts is crucial for effective implementation.
• The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) offers a framework to understand user acceptance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate factors influencing physicians' acceptance of CDSS alerts.
• To apply the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to understand physician perspectives.
• To identify how perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) impact attitude towards usage (AT), user satisfaction (US), and behavioral intention to use (BI).

Main Methods:

• A structured TAM-based questionnaire was administered to 72 physicians at an academic medical center.
• Physician characteristics (age, clinical experience, patient volume, etc.) were analyzed for their impact on PEOU and PU.
• Multiple regression analysis was used to assess relationships among TAM constructs and external factors.

Main Results:

• Older age and higher patient volume negatively impacted PU and PEOU.
• Clinical experience positively influenced PEOU.
• PEOU significantly predicted PU, AT, and US, but US did not correlate with BI.

Conclusions:

• Physicians' perceived ease of use (PEOU) is a key determinant of their behavioral intention to use CDSS alerts.
• High patient volume and older age contribute to alert fatigue, reducing acceptance.
• Context-aware and frequency-optimized CDSS alert designs are recommended to improve usability, user satisfaction, and workflow integration.