Work

Patient Safety in Guideline-Based Decision Support for Hypertension Management: ATHENA DSS

Year: 2002

Type: article

Abstract: The Institute of Medicine recently issued a landmark report on medical error.1 In the penumbra of this report, every aspect of health care is subject to new scrutiny regarding patient safety. Informatics technology can support patient safety by correcting problems inherent in older technology; however, new information technology can also contribute to new sources of error. We report here a categorization of possible errors that may arise in deploying a system designed to give guideline-based advice on prescribing drugs, an approach to anticipating these errors in an automated guideline system, and design features to minimize errors and thereby maximize patient safety. Our guideline implementation system, based on the EON architecture, provides a framework for a knowledge base that is sufficiently comprehensive to incorporate safety information, and that is easily reviewed and updated by clinician-experts.

Source: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association

DOI: 10.1197/jamia.m1218

Author: M. K. Goldstein

Institutions: VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Stanford Medicine, Stanford University

Language: English

Topic: Electronic Health Records Systems

Subfield: Health Information Management

Field: Health Professions

Domain: Health Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institutes of Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine