How to Implement Evidence Using Clinical Decision Support

Resource: Translating Evidence Into Practice: A How-To Manual for Implementing Clinical Decision Support (PDF, 13 MB, 51 pages)

This manual gives step-by-step guidance to help primary care practices develop and implement clinical decision support (CDS) for chronic disease management. Based on real world experience of CDS implementation at a Federally Qualified Health Center, the manual reviews principles of CDS and change management and walks practices through the process of building CDS into practices’ electronic health records (EHRs) to support implementation of evidence. Practices can follow this guide to embed selected evidence into clinical information systems, part of Key Driver 1: Seek, select, and customize the best evidence for use by the practice. The manual also describes how to collect and act on data, as specified in Key Driver 2: Implement a data-driven quality improvement process to integrate evidence into practice procedures. Finally, the manual describes how to use electronic health records (EHR) for data collection, per Key Driver 3: Optimize health information systems to extract data and support use of evidence in practice. Sections of this resource include information on:

• Preparing an organization for a CDS integration project.
• Defining the project.
• Understanding settings.
• Developing EHR datasets and extracting data.
• Identifying and building CDS features.
• Implementing changes.
• Using data to evaluate improvement.
• Monitoring and sustaining improvements.

Institution of origin: Primary Care Development Corporation

Author(s): Shelley D, Sacks R, Kopal H

Copyright information and permission: © 2012 Primary Care Development Corporation. Posted with permission of the Primary Care Development Corporation.

Acknowledgements: The CDS project at Open Door Family Medical Centers was supported by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Partners in this project include: Open Door Family Medical Centers, Inc., New York University College of Dentistry and School of Medicine, Columbia University Mailman School of Medicine.

Publication date: February 2012