Case Study: DSS helping make better Doctors

1 > The case begins with a situation where in a patient being treated for blood clot is being administered medication that could have adverse interaction with his existing medication that is being taken for ulcers.
Management:
The example shows that physicians many a times prescribe medication without considering patient medical history and not considering other medical facts.
The other problems while administering medication is related to human errors such as poor handwriting of prescriptions, memory lapses, fatigue and distractions.
The amount of various drugs available in the market also adds to the vagueness of medical prescriptions.
Physicians seldom ignore prescribing ancillary drugs that would prevent side effects caused by the primary drug used in treatment of diseases.
Physician and nurses lapses also have resulted in dosage errors and incorrect drug substitutes.
Organizational:
Some of the problems on the organizational side are not having access to the patient’s medical history, not knowing patients drug allergies, not keeping up to date information on latest trends in the field of medicine and diseases. The frequent exchange of information between physicians and hospitals further dilute the inputs that may cause errors in diagnosing and treatment of diseases.
Technology:
The use of IT is helpful to build computerized physician order entry system that helps reduce prescription and dosage errors cannot fully substitute for a doctor’s expertise and diagnosis as each patient could have unique medical history patterns and drug allergies.
Many of the doctors are reluctant to use technology and machines to help them with procedures and treatments as they feel it is more of a hindrance to administer effective drugs quickly.

2 > The use of CPOE and DDS systems has limited use and can never fully replace the doctor. The CPOE system can aid a doctor with his decision making capabilities and suggest various options and best practices but ultimately it is for the doctor, based on his experience to administer drugs best suited for his or her patients.
A well designed CPOE systems can be used to help keep the physician up to date with latest trends in treatment of particular diseases , help calculate drug doses based on patients bio statistics, alert the doctor on possible side affects for specific drugs, suggest alternate medications.
A fully intelligent diagnostic decision support (DSS) system can aid doctors quickly diagnose diseases but to fully depend on such systems for treatment would be erroneous as no machine could substitute the human doctor with his experience and years of training.
However such systems can help enhance a physician’s knowledge as he could quickly access specific information related to specific diseases instantaneously there by helping him make better choices for treatment. It would also help save life’s in situations were the diseases are rare and not easily diagnosed by doctors. It could prevent prescription malpractices as these systems would regulate correct medication and the right dosage.

In conclusion intelligent DSS and CPOE systems can never ever replace the human physician who uses his personal warmth and charisma to build the much needed mental confidence in his/er patients to recoup from diseases. The connectedness and human bonding between a patient and a physician cannot be replaced by machines as suggested in the case.