Electronic health records (ehr) and clinical decision support

[Hina Muqadas]

The electronic health record (EHR) has catalyzed change for clinicians by making available vast amounts of patient data and other information that could be used for clinical decision support (CDS).
Legislation in the U.S. has created financial incentives to adopt an EHR and, more importantly, to derive meaningful use from the EHR. Although adoption of the EHR has been brisk in the U.S., the role it plays in patient care is unclear and will continue to evolve for many years as new uses are discovered.
The sheer amount of patient information available in a single electronic location rather than in volumes of paper can assist clinical decision making, even if the EHR serves as nothing more than a repository of information and images that can be searched, reviewed, and compared.
Following are some benefits of the EHR:

Automated drug interaction and allergy alerts and dosing error detection may reduce medication errors.
Clinically relevant links embedded in the EHR to information regarding diseases, testing, and treatment may encourage the clinician to access the most current information on the patient’s problem set in real time.
Clinical scoring tools and pretest probability calculators linked to or embedded within the EHR can cull information from a specific patient