Describe any CDS applications that you are currently using in your work environment

The primary purpose of CDS is to provide timely information (usually at the point of care) to clinicians, managers, data analysts, safety officers and others operating within the healthcare domain. Examples of CDS tools include a variety of tools to enhance decision-making in the clinical workflow. These tools include computerized alerts and reminders to care providers and patients; clinical guidelines; condition-specific order sets; focused patient data reports and summaries; documentation templates; diagnostic support, and contextually relevant reference information, among other tools. It has been reported that CDS can potentially lower costs, improve patient safety, and support clinician decision-making. However, much of this is fairly speculative and based on “wishful thinking. CDS is not new to the field of Respiratory Care. Publications in RC journals appears as early as 2004-but widespread acceptance has been hindered by the rising costs of technology, integration challenges, and rapidly changing clinical practices. CDS can be used on a variety of platforms (such as the Internet, personal computers, electronic medical record networks, hand-held devices, or written materials). Planning for a new health information technology (IT) system to support electronically-based CDS includes a number of key steps, such as identifying the needs of users and what the system is expected to do, deciding whether to purchase a commercial system or build the system, designing the system for a clinic’s specific needs, planning the implementation process, and determining how to evaluate how well the system has addressed the identified needs. In the case of CDS, issues around design and implementation of the system are often interconnected. Health information technologies designed to improve clinical decision making are particularly attractive for their ability to address the growing information overload clinicians face, and to provide a platform for integrating evidence-based knowledge into care delivery. The majority of CDS applications operate as components of comprehensive EHR systems, although stand-alone CDS systems are also used. However, CDS is a sophisticated health IT component. It requires computable biomedical knowledge, person-specific data, and a reasoning or inferencing mechanism that combines knowledge and data to generate and present helpful information to clinicians as care is being delivered. This information must be filtered, organized and presented in a way that supports the current workflow, allowing the user to make an informed decision quickly and take action. Hence the challenge to RC managers and clinicians! For this forum, please describe any CDS applications that you are currently using in your work environment. These can be ether inside or external to the RT department. In addition, please describe any future applications of CDS that you feel would be of substantial benefit to the practice of RC or medicine as a whole. No need to conduct any literature searches-just looking for your personal insights, observations and thoughts on CDS.