title: The potential role of computerized decision support systems to improve empirical antibiotic prescribing.
abstract: Prudent antibiotic prescribing is a cornerstone of efforts to control the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance and to reduce the occurrence of Clostridium difficile associated diarrhoea, and is also currently the subject of a joint Working Party of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and the Hospital Infection Society. An article in this issue of the Journal describes a cluster randomized trial of an intervention to improve antibiotic prescribing using TREAT, a computerized decision support system. The results from this trial provide a significant contribution to the development of evidence-based prescribing of antibiotics.
authors.affiliation: Health Informatics Centre, Division of Community Health Sciences, Mackenzie Building, Kirsty Semple Way, Dundee DD2 4BF, UK. p.g.davey@chs.dundee.ac.uk
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Davey
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000188:drug therapy*; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D004360:Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents