title: Clinical utility of an electronic poisons information and clinical decision support tool.
abstract: The objective of the study was to assess the use of a computer toxicology database/clinical decision aid by clinical practitioners. The study investigated the sources that Emergency Department (ED) personnel use to obtain toxicology information and performed a quality audit of the current database. A questionnaire survey of ED staff was used in departments with access to the New Zealand Poisons Centre Substance Database (NZSD), a toxicology CD ROM computer database. Outcome measures were reported use of alternative data sources when managing clinical toxicology presentations and the qualities of the NZSD. Computer databases are commonly used for the management of clinical toxicology cases and the toxicology computer database/clinical decision aid studied is well accepted and used in Emergency Medicine practice. The users of the NZSD assessed the usability and quality of the information of the database.
authors.affiliation: New Zealand National Poisons Centre, University of Otago, P.O. Box 913, Dunedin, New Zealand. docmartin@clear.net.nz
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Watts
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fountain
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Reith
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Herbison
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006751:Hospital Information Systems; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand; D011039:Poison Control Centers; D011041:Poisoning / Q000628:therapy*; D014116:Toxicology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data