Which of the following is the best definition for clinical decision support systems?
A. Tools that provide patient-specific information to enhance health-related decisions at
the point of care
B. A suite of tools that facilitates the ordering of treatment and laboratory tests for
hospitalized patients
C. Computer tools that support patient-related decisions based on highly optimized
Bayesian algorithms
D. None of the above - Answer- Answer:
A. Tools that provide patient-specific information to enhance health-related decisions at
the point of care
Which of the following best characterizes the concept of "decision heuristics" in this
module?
A. Heuristics are systematic deviations from normative standards
B. Heuristics reflect usability violations in the design of clinical decision support systems
C. Heuristics are rules of thumb people use for making decisions
D. Heuristics provide explicit normative standards for decision-making - Answer-
Answer:
C. Heuristics are rules of thumb people use for making decisions
Which of the following best characterizes the notion of "biases" as given in this module?
A. Biases are rules of thumb for making decisions
B. Biases reflect usability violations in the design of clinical decision support systems
C. Biases reflect systematic deviations from normative standards
D. Biases provide explicit criteria of a normative standard for decision excellence -
Answer- Answer:
C. Biases reflect systematic deviations from normative standards
Which of these statements is true about "confirmation bias" as used in this module?
A. It occurs when decision makers inflate the probability of a prior judgment (e.g.,
diagnosis of a patient) based on subsequent information
B. It reflects overconfidence in one's judgment, causing one hypothesis to be favored
over another
C. It leads one to selectively attend to faulty decision options
D. It reflects overconfidence in one's use of affinity decision diagra - Answer- Answer:
B. It reflects overconfidence in one's judgment, causing one hypothesis to be favored
over another
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of decision-making in naturalistic clinical
settings?
i) Multiple players use multiple, high-volume streams of information to coordinate
decisions and actions
ii) Goals are ill-defined, changing, and/or competing
,iii) Decision-action cycle is affected by monitoring and feedback
iv) Involves high levels of stress, time pressure, and risk
A. i and ii
B. i, ii, and iii
C. ii and iv
D. All of the above are characteristics of decision-making in naturalistic clinical settings -
Answer- Answer:
D. All of the above are characteristics of decision-making in naturalistic clinical settings
Which of the following is NOT one of the objectives of decision support systems?
a. Reduce medication errors and adverse medical events
b. Improve management of specific acute and chronic conditions
c. Facilitate interpersonal communication between physicians and patients
d. Ensure best clinical practices consistent with medical evidence
e. Lead to cost-effective and appropriate prescription medication use - Answer- Answer:
c. Facilitate interpersonal communication between physicians and patients
Which of the following is NOT true about Computerized Provider Order Entry Systems?
a. Supports electronic entry of clinical orders for the treatment of patients
b. Automates the medication ordering process
c. Orders are communicated over a network to the medical staff or to the departments
d. All of the above are true
e. B and C are true - Answer- Answer:
d. All of the above are true
List five (5) mechanisms of support provided by Clinical Decision Support Systems
(CDSS). - Answer- Acceptable answers:
Alerts, reminders, structured order forms; pick lists, patient-specific dose checking,
guideline support.
As information management problems increase, mental workload increases. Which of
the following are reasons why there is a need for well-designed decision support
systems to help clinicians cope with high mental workload conditions? (multiple choice)
A. Under time pressure, clinicians have less time and patience to navigate through
poorly designed technology
B. Under more significant mental workload, individuals can no longer adapt or
compensate in order to maintain cognitive performance
C. When demands imposed by the system are too great, they actually exceed the
attentional resources or mental capacity of the person
D. A and c
E. All of the above - Answer- Answer:
E. All of the above
Koppel and colleagues identified 2 super-ordinate classes of error associated with the
use of CPOE systems. Identify the 2 errors from the list below.
i) Automation bias errors
, ii) Hindsight bias errors
iii) Information errors generated by fragmentation of data and failure to integrate the
hospital's information systems
iv) Errors that are a consequence of egregious violations of patient safety
vi) Concentric workflow errors characterized by geometric progressions of usability
violations
vii) Human-machine interface flaws
A. i and ii
B. iii and vii
C. iii and v
D. ii and iv - Answer- Answer:
B. iii and vii
iii) Information errors generated by fragmentation of data and failure to integrate the
hospital's information systems
vii) Human-machine interface flaws
Based on the module, which of the following is NOT an example of a barrier due to poor
screen display?
A. Alert text that is in all capital letters
B. Alerts that are presented one at a time
C. Multiple alerts that are presented in one window
D. Alerts that are presented several at a time - Answer- Answer:
B. Alerts that are presented one at a time
Based on the module, which of the following is NOT one of the three levels of situation
awareness?
A. Projection of future status
B. Perception of environmental awareness
C. Communication with support staff
D. Comprehension of information - Answer- Answer:
C. Communication with support staff
Identify five (5) of the barriers to prescriber decision-making identified by Russ and
colleagues (2009) and provide a description of each. - Answer- Acceptable Answers:
-Poor screen display (Alert display does not support alert resolution and/or prescriber
workflow)
-Inadequate alert specification (Alert does not provide information on why it was
triggered and/or the potential problem)
-Actual or perceived lack of evidence (Alert is not evidence-based, does not provide a
reference to existing evidence)
-Unclear level of risk (Alert does not provide clear information on relative risk of harm for
a given patient)
-Redundancy (Repeated alerts within the same encounter or over multiple encounters
for a given patient)
-Low alert signal to noise ratio (Numerousness of alerts leads to information overload,
prescriber desensitization, and potential for missing key alerts)