Back to Search
Start Over
A clinical decision support system improves antibiotic therapy for upper urinary tract infection in a randomized single-blinded study.
- Source :
- BMC Health Services Research; 3/6/2020, Vol. 20 Issue 1, p1-10, 10p, 5 Charts
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- <bold>Background: </bold>Due to increasing bacterial resistance rates choosing a correct empiric antibiotic therapy is getting more and more complex. Often medical doctors use information tools to make the right treatment choice.<bold>Methods: </bold>One hundred sixty six participants (77 medical doctors and 89 medical students) were asked to provide a diagnosis and antibiotic therapy in a simple fictive paper case of upper urinary tract infection (UTI) in a randomized single-blinded study. Participants were randomized to one of four information tools they were allowed to use in the study or control: 1. free internet access, 2. pharmaceutical pocket guide, 3. pocket guide antibiotic therapy, 4. clinical decision support system (CDSS), and control (no information tool). The CDSS was designed for the study. The adherence to the national German UTI guideline was evaluated.<bold>Results: </bold>Only 27.1% (n = 45/166) provided a correct diagnosis of upper UTI and 19.4% (n = 32/166) an antibiotic treatment recommended by national German treatment guidelines indicating their need for information tools. This result was not significantly different between medical doctors and medical students, residents and medical specialists or level of working experience. Using CDSS improved results significantly compared to conventional tools (diagnosis 57.1%; treatment recommendation 40.5%; p < 0,01). Processing time was not different between the use of CDSS and conventional information tools. CDSS users based their decision making on their assigned information tool more than users of conventional tools (73.8% vs. 48.0%; p < 0.01). Using CDSS improved the confidence of participants in their recommendation significantly compared to conventional tools (p < 0.01).<bold>Conclusions: </bold>Our study suggests that medical professionals require information tools in diagnosing and treating a simple case of upper UTI correctly. CDSS appears to be superior to conventional tools as an information source. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- DECISION support systems
PHYSICIANS
MEDICAL students
URINARY tract infections
RESIDENTS (Medicine)
DRUG resistance in bacteria
ANTIBIOTICS
PSYCHOLOGY of medical students
RESEARCH
MEDICAL databases
INFORMATION storage & retrieval systems
RESEARCH methodology
EVALUATION research
MEDICAL cooperation
MEDICAL care research
COMPARATIVE studies
RANDOMIZED controlled trials
BLIND experiment
PSYCHOLOGY of physicians
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 14726963
- Volume :
- 20
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- BMC Health Services Research
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 142104451
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-5045-6