Computer-based clinical decision support (CDS) = the use of the computer to bring relevant knowledge to bear on the health care and well being of a patient.

The general aim of CDS can be one or both of the following:
* To make data about a patient easier to assess by, or more apparent to, a human.
* To foster optimal problem-solving, decision-making, and action by the human. The exact nature of a particular form of CDS depends on its specific purpose.
The decision support is provided to a user—who may be a physician, a nurse, a laboratory technologist, a pharmacist, a patient, or other individual with a need for it. In some instances, the user may be a computer program rather than a human user. Many possible settings can give rise to this need, such as a problem arising in clinical practice, a health maintenance/preventive care question of a patient, or a train- ing/educational exercise.
A primary task of the computer is to select knowledge that is pertinent, and/or to process data to create the pertinent knowledge. To the extent that the computer can make the selection based on patient-specific data, the relevance of the CDS to the individual patient is enhanced.
The selection of knowledge and processing of data involve carrying out some sort of inferencing process, algorithm, rule, or association method.
The result of CDS is to perform some action, usually to make a recommendation.

	Created by Michael Riben about 11 years ago

informaticsBoards NotForReview Note on CDS, created by Michael Riben on 30/09/2013.