Better care for patients with suspected pulmonary embolism

This issue contains 2 articles about the management of suspected pulmonary embolism (PE). One shows that physicians frequently fail to use evidence-based diagnostic guidelines, especially when interpreting negative test results. The companion article describes a clinical prediction rule for classifying patients with suspected PE into low-, medium-, and high-risk categories. These studies are representative of the very high-quality body of evidence to guide decision making for suspected PE. We have a wide gap between our abundant knowledge and its application. Computer-based decision support for diagnosing suspected PE is an idea whose time is at hand, if not long overdue