CT Pulmonary Angiogram Clinical Pretest Probability Tool: Impact on Emergency Department Utilization.

Objective: Currently, CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) for evaluating acute pulmonary embolism (PE) in emergency departments (EDs) is overused and with low yields. The goal of this study is to assess the impact of an evidence-based clinical decision support (CDS) tool, aimed at optimizing appropriate use of CTPA for evaluating PE.

Methods: The study was performed at EDs in a large health care system and included nine academic and community hospitals.

Representing narrative evidence as clinical evidence logic statements.

Objective: Clinical evidence logic statements (CELS) are shareable knowledge artifacts in a semistructured "If-Then" format that can be used for clinical decision support systems. This project aimed to assess factors facilitating CELS representation.

Materials And Methods: We described CELS representation of clinical evidence.

Characteristics of knowledge content in a curated online evidence library.

Objective: To describe types of recommendations represented in a curated online evidence library, report on the quality of evidence-based recommendations pertaining to diagnostic imaging exams, and assess underlying knowledge representation.

Materials And Methods: The evidence library is populated with clinical decision rules, professional society guidelines, and locally developed best practice guidelines. Individual recommendations were graded based on a standard methodology and compared using chi-square test.