title: General practitioners' attitudes towards decision-supported prescribing: an analysis of the Dutch primary care sector.
abstract: The use of multiple drugs by patients increases the risk of medical problems. Clinical decision support could assist general practitioners with prescribing but is underused. This article aims to investigate the attitudes of general practitioners towards using decision support systems. A survey was distributed among 500 Dutch general practitioners. Virtually all 184 respondents indicated having a clinical information system, while only 21 percent indicated having a decision support plug-in; this correlated with their use of medical formularies. Only use of one of the medical formularies correlated with the number of recognized underprescription problems. General practitioners' attitudes toward a newly proposed system aiding them with polypharmacy prescribing were mainly positive (57%); the perceived usefulness correlated with output quality (p = .000), time investment (p = .000), and financial stimuli (payability: p = .000 and reimbursement: p = .015) but not with job relevance. Dutch general practitioners are thus likely to adopt the proposed system under the conditions that it improves prescription quality and does not require extensive investments of time or money.
authors.affiliation: Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Michiel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meulendijk
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Spruit
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Drenth-van Maanen
authors.forename: Mattijs
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Numans
authors.forename: Sjaak
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brinkkemper
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jansen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055695:Electronic Prescribing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000592:standards* / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009426:Netherlands; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Clinical decision support systems; computerized physician order entry; health information technology; medical informatics; primary health care