A Leader at the Intersection of IT and Clinical Workflow

These can be delivered in many workflow-friendly ways that help, rather than hinder, workflow; we spend a lot of time in the Improving Outcomes with CDS book describing just how to make that happen.  Providers can benefit from more insight into how different CDS methods compare in terms of information quality and completeness, speed of access, timeliness and usability.  Clinicians also need to be aware of how well these methods support them in making accurate, evidence-based diagnostic, treatment and prevention decisions, and how they.  help clinicians accomplish tasks, including data entry, review and assessment. 
  
How much does physician culture play into CDS struggles – the physician attitude that no one will tell me how to practice? Or is that a non-factor, do physicians want the information a CDS can provide? 

I think that physician culture has changed substantially.  The entire world is now seeking information, seeking it often, expecting it to come back quickly, and taking action based on it.  Most importantly, people expect to make decisions and take action on the information retrieved.  Clinicians are no different.  They want data, information and insight, but delivered in an actionable, workflow-supportive way, based on the particular patient as well as on general principles.  In an ideal scenario, such content extracts information from multiple sources and encodes knowledge into easy-to-use pieces of information.  The role of CDS is not to restrict clinical practice; in fact, CDS shouldn't be making policy at all, but simply presenting information and decisions that humans have agreed on previously.  When done this way, CDS is not "telling a physician how to practice", but making it easier for the physician to do the practice they already want to do.

Instead of constraining clinicians, CDS can liberate them to focus on overall treatment planning,  patient engagement and education -- improving both patient and physician satisfaction.  The near future will see improving and increasing CDS tools directed toward care coordination, driven by ever-increasing regulatory and payment drivers.  Providers will improve care coordination by applying CDS communication tools and more highly interactive multidisciplinary care plans.  CDS assessment and management tools are being built with greater attention to possible variations in the patient’s progress and response to treatment, which have often bedeviled efforts to regularize coordinated care.  Government and payer programs will continue to recognize that coordination is vital for efficient, effective, safe and timely healthcare, and those programs will support it and require it.  HIT is one very important part of the toolset that providers need to make this happen.  HIT tools can be expected to become more prevalent, more usable and more valuable to the effort.