A decision support system (DSS) is an information system that supports the decision making of a business. There are two types of decision support systems that are used today. These are either fully computerized, a human support system, or could be a combination of the two.[1] These support systems allow help the business in monitoring decisions that need to be made. One field in which decision support systems are used in the health care field, which is known as a clinical decision support (CDS).

So what does a clinical decision support actually do for the healthcare field? Clinical decision support (CDS) provides clinicians, staff, patients or other individuals with knowledge and person-specific information, intelligently filtered or presented at appropriate times, to enhance health and health care[2]. This allows for staff or patients to be properly informed about how to handle certain cases by giving them the proper information needing to be obtained. Some of these benefits that a CDS includes are increased quality of care and enhanced health outcomes, avoidance of errors and adverse events, and improved efficiency, cost-benefit, and provider and patient satisfaction.[3] CDS help lower the risk of errors in events while leaving the patients in a safe environment. All the data is calculated and prepped by the system in order to insure that the patient will come out with 100 percent satisfaction.

A CDS is used in order to ensure that the procedure a doctor is about to perform does not go wrong. CDS are expected to improve the quality of care by providing more accurate, effective, and reliable diagnoses and treatments, and by avoiding errors due to physicians' insufficient knowledge.[4] It helps the doctor gain knowledge in his procedure in order to gain any information that he or the patient may have missed. It also helps the doctors and businesses by informing any information or steps a doctor may have missed. It allows for doctors to be able to properly prescribe drugs to patients reducing the amount of money the patient has to use on a drug specialist.

Like all computer systems is a risk of using these systems in order to help patients. They are expected to improve the quality of care by providing more accurate, effective, and reliable diagnoses and treatments, and by avoiding errors due to physicians' insufficient knowledge[5]. Databases and systems are not always the safest ways to perform medical decisions. Corrupt data and system malfunctions can leave patients in critical conditions if not treated properly. Systems can also give wrong data, which prove to be fatal to a person’s life. This is why all medical work should be double checked in order to fix any mistakes.

CDS are important to the health care field today when used with caution. If this information is used wrong or corrupt it could leave a patient in critical condition and leave a clinic out of business. When used right a CDS can save many clinics and doctors time and money by properly assessing the case. Like everything else using a system like this has a risk and reward factor that could affect the patient in a good or bad way.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_support_system

[2] http://www.healthit.gov/policy-researchers-implementers/clinical-decision-support-cds

[3] see note 2

[4] http://www.intechopen.com/books/efficient-decision-support-systems-practice-and-challenges-in-biomedical-related-domain/impacts-and-risks-of-adopting-clinical-decision-support-systems

[5] see note 4