Clinical Decision Systems

Clinical decision systems are information systems that support and assist health care professionals in clinical decision making tasks like diagnosis, therapy planning and monitoring. Their purpose is not to replace or substitute for human abilities or skills. The value of clinical decision systems depends on their role and contribution to the patient care process. Their role may be to act as a reference book of relevant medical knowledge or similar patient cases, or as a watchdog to screen routines or detect deviations, or they may remind the user of extreme possibilities or forecast outcomes of different alternatives. Additionally, these systems may produce information from data by interpretation, work as tutoring or guidance systems, and represent a more experienced consultant for a less experienced user