Developing decision support systems: a change in emphasis

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Clinical Decision Support Systems
• Health Technology Adoption

Background:

• Numerous expert systems exist but lack routine clinical use.
• Healthcare professionals exhibit skepticism towards decision support technology.
• The Dilemma project addresses these challenges in shared care settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline experiences from a work-package within the Dilemma project.
• To focus on developing applications with decision support for coronary artery disease shared care.
• To identify barriers to expert system acceptance in healthcare.

Main Methods:

• Development of applications incorporating decision support components.
• Focus on shared care environments for coronary artery disease patients.
• Analysis of past expert system failures and user community skepticism.

Main Results:

• Identified reasons for the lack of acceptance of previous expert systems.
• Gained insights into the development process for clinically useful applications.
• Explored user perspectives on decision support technology in shared care.

Conclusions:

• Past expert systems have not achieved widespread clinical adoption.
• A paradigm shift towards clinically useful applications with expert system components is proposed.
• This approach may enhance the acceptance of decision support technology in future healthcare.