The Effect of Clinical Decision Support Tools on Physicians' Practices.

Objective: The objective of this research is to assess the impact of clinical decision support (CDS) tools on the practices of Indian physicians.

Methods: Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions are used to assess the data.

Results: Through a primary survey, it was found that about 69% of the physicians frequently use clinical decision tools in their practice. The author found that the clinical decision tools affect 1-5 decisions every week (for about 54% of the sample). Nonetheless, a great many (31%) stated that they do not use the tools frequently; therefore, none of their decisions are affected by the technology on a usual basis. There is a slight improvement in diagnosis post the use of the app. Although 46% of doctors stated that they have made zero errors in decision making post the use of the application, 54% admitted making errors in 1-5 decisions per week. This shows that the tool has not been able to address all the needs of the doctors. A great many agreed that the tool helped in reducing diagnostic tests. Although a majority of doctors stated that they order fewer than five diagnostic tests post the use of the application, a great many doctors agreed that they order >10 tests after using the application. This could be due to less faith in the technology or could be an attribute of a small sample. The author intended to assess whether clinical decision tools are cost-effective. The author found that not all decision tools are cost-effective. The variation could be due to differences in comprehensiveness of information, product features, and area of practice.

Conclusion: This study exhibits that there is less faith in the technology and the application is favored by younger doctors. By and large, doctors agreed that the tool provides quicker diagnosis and is user-friendly.