Innovation Amidst the Crisis: Health IT and the Opioid Abuse Epidemic | Part 3 – Clinical Decision Support

By COLIN KONSCHAK, FACHE and DAVE LEVIN, MD Dave Levin Colin Konschak The opioid crisis in the United States is having a devastating impact on individuals, their families, and the health care industry. This multi-part series will focus on the role technology can play in addressing this crisis. Part one of the series proposed a strategic framework for evaluating and pursuing technical solutions. A Framework for Innovation As noted in part one of our series, we believe the opioid crisis is an “All Hands-On Deck” moment and health IT (HIT) has a lot to offer. Given the many different possibilities, having a method for organizing and prioritizing potential IT innovations is an important starting point. We have proposed a framework that groups opportunities based on an abstract view of five types of functionality. In this article we will explore the role of technologies that provide clinical decision support. Clinical Decision Support for Opioid Management The digitalization of health care via deployment of electronic health records (EHRs) set the stage for clinical decision support (CDS). In the broadest terms, the goal of CDS is to “make it easy to do the right thing, hard to do the wrong thing.” Classic examples include automated checks for interactions or allergies when a new medication is prescribed. In addition to this kind of alerting, CDS can leverage other IT tools including order sets, care paths, documentation templates, and increasingly, analytics including t...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Data Tech THCB APIs clinical support Colin Konschak Dave Levin Opioid epidemic Source Type: blogs