Recommendations for a clinical decision support for the management of individuals with chronic kidney disease.
OBJECTIVE
Care for advanced CKD patients is suboptimal. CKD practice guidelines aim to close gaps in care, but making providers aware of guidelines is an ineffective implementation strategy. The Institute of Medicine has endorsed the use of clinical decision support (CDS) for implementing guidelines. The authors' objective was to identify the requirements of an optimal CDS system for CKD management.


METHODS
The aims of this study expanded on those of previous work that used the facilitated process improvement (FPI) methodology. In FPI, an expert workgroup develops a set of quality improvement tools that can subsequently be utilized by practicing physicians. The authors conducted a discussion with a group of multidisciplinary experts to identify requirements for an optimal CDS system.


RESULTS
The panel considered the process of patient identification and management, associated barriers, and elements by which CDS could address these barriers. The panel also discussed specific knowledge needs in the context of a typical scenario in which CDS would be used. Finally, the group developed a set of core requirements that will likely facilitate the implementation of a CDS system aimed at improving the management of any chronic medical condition.


CONCLUSIONS
Considering the growing burden of CKD and the potential healthcare and resource impact of guideline implementation through CDS, the relevance of this systematic process, consistent with Institute of Medicine recommendations, cannot be understated. The requirements described in this report could serve as a basis for the design of a CKD-specific CDS.
Patwardhan
Meenal B
MB
Duke Center for Clinical Health Policy Research, 2200 W. Main Street, Suite 220 Durham NC 27705, USA. Meenal.P@Duke.edu
Kawamoto
Kensaku
K
Lobach
David
D
Patel
Uptal D
UD
Matchar
David B
DB
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002908:Chronic Disease; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003245:Consensus Statements as Topic; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D010348:Patient Care Team; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic / Q000592:standards*; D016730:Program Development; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States