Clinical Decision Support Decreases Volume of Imaging for Low Back Pain in an Urban Emergency Department.

Purpose: To determine whether point-of-care clinical decision support can effectively reduce inappropriate medical imaging of patients who present to the emergency department (ED) with low-back pain (LBP).

Materials And Methods: This was a prospective, single-center study of lumbar imaging referrals made by 43 emergency physicians at a major acute care center. Each physician saw at least 10 LBP cases in both pre- and post-intervention periods.