Clinical Decision Support Systems: An Innovative Approach to Enhancing Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Abstract

In the “good old days,” Hippocrates narrowed the basic understanding of disease and clinical practice to 4 “humors”: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Today, medical practice takes place in a rapidly expanding realm of an ever-changing knowledge base that makes it difficult to include all evidence-based information about etiology, epidemiology, phenomenology, assessment, prevention, treatment, and more, in day-to-day patient care. This is made more challenging by the complexity and growing interest in “personalized medicine” and “precision medicine.” Although some clinicians read widely and have prodigious memories, few of us are able to apply all available pertinent knowledge to our patients’ care. We do have options. We can revert to the 4 humors. Better yet, we can look for modern technology to support complex clinical practice with computer capacity and artificial intelligence. These innovative processes have been captured for clinical use in what are referred to as Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs).