Deployment of a human-centred clinical decision support system for pulmonary embolism: evaluation of impact on quality of diagnostic decisions

Journal article

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a serious condition that presents a diagnostic challenge for which diagnostic errors often happen. The literature suggests that a gap remains between PE diagnostic guidelines and adherence in healthcare practice. While system-level decision support tools exist, the clinical impact of a human-centred design (HCD) approach of PE diagnostic tool design is unknown.

Design: Before–after (with a preintervention period as non-concurrent control) design study.

Setting: Inpatient units at two tertiary care hospitals.

Participants: General internal medicine physicians and their patients who underwent PE workups.

Intervention: After a 6-month preintervention period, a clinical decision support system (CDSS) for diagnosis of PE was deployed and evaluated over 6 months. A CDSS technical testing phase separated the two time periods.

Measurements: PE workups were identified in both the preintervention and CDSS intervention phases, and data were collected from medical charts. Physician reviewers assessed workup summaries (blinded to the study period) to determine adherence to evidence-based recommendations. Adherence to recommendations was quantified with a score ranging from 0 to 1.0 (the primary study outcome). Diagnostic tests ordered for PE workups were the secondary outcomes of interest.

Results: Overall adherence to diagnostic pathways was 0.63 in the CDSS intervention phase versus 0.60 in the preintervention phase (p=0.18), with fewer workups in the CDSS intervention phase having very low adherence scores. Further, adherence was significantly higher when PE workups included the Wells prediction rule (median adherence score=0.76 vs 0.59, p=0.002). This difference was even more pronounced when the analysis was limited to the CDSS intervention phase only (median adherence score=0.80 when Wells was used vs 0.60 when Wells was not used, p=0.001). For secondary outcomes, using both the D-dimer blood test (42.9% vs 55.7%, p=0.014) and CT pulmonary angiogram imaging (61.9% vs 75.4%, p=0.005) was lower during the CDSS intervention phase.

Conclusion: A clinical decision support intervention with an HCD improves some aspects of the diagnostic decision, such as the selection of diagnostic tests and the use of the Wells probabilistic prediction rule for PE.

Authors: Altabbaa, G; Flemons, W; Ocampo, W; Babione, JN; Kaufman, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• Journal: BMJ Open Quality
• Volume: 13
• Issue: 1
• Article number: e002574
• Place of publication: England
• Publication date: 2024-02-12
• Acceptance date: 2024-01-25
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjoq-2023-002574
• EISSN: 2399-6641
• Pmid: 38350673
• Language: English
• Keywords: pulmonary embolism; decision support systems; clinical; health facilities