The Clinical Decision Support Coalition released the final version of its voluntary industry guidelines for software developers to use when designing clinical decision support solutions Aug. 30.
The CDS Coalition — which includes representation from clinical societies, healthcare payers, healthcare providers, patient advocacy organizations and software developers — published a draft of the guidelines April 27. At the time, it requested feedback from users and developers of CDS software.
Here are three standards the coalition recommends to guide the development of CDS software.
1. Transparency. Developers must disclose relevant information, such as the limits to a software's capabilities and the source of clinical information or decision rules the software applies.
2. Human intervention. CDS software's goal is to assist, not replace, providers. The intended user should be sufficiently competent, whether to through training or experience, to make the clinical decision in question without use of the software.
3. Time to reflect. The user should be given adequate time to reflect on the software's recommendation before having to make a final decision.
Click here to view the final guidelines.