The verse amount of information in circulation has dwarfed the human mind in the acquisition of knowledge to effectively deliver care at the point of service. I support the use of clinical decision support systems to assist clinicians in delivering knowledge in a convenient way.
The use of portable devices like smart phones, I Pad and mounted units in patients rooms that are linked with the organization EMR. These convenient or portable products could be set up to alert clinicians, look up drugs information, assist with treatment critical pathways, test inputs and results look up, reminders and currently available information on best practices.
Dr. Yellowlees in his lecture talks about the “Principle of Complementarity”. Computer does best what human do poorly and Human does best what computer do poorly. Clinicians with the creative , analytical mind can supplement their knowledge with the remembering and retaining skill of the computer system.
The knowledge at the point of care for the clinicians will be enhanced if the computer products has features for things like drug look up, alerts, clinical algorithms, monitoring applications that can interface with the organization EMR and portable and convenient enough for the clinician to use at the point of care.
