title: Radiologist Point-of-Care Clinical Decision Support and Adherence to Guidelines for Incidental Lung Nodules.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of a workstation-integrated, point-of-care, clinical decision support (CDS) tool on radiologist adherence to radiology department guidelines for follow-up of incidental pulmonary nodules detected on abdominal CT.
  
  
  METHODS
  The CDS tool was developed to facilitate adherence to department guidelines for managing pulmonary nodules seen on abdominal CT. In October 2012, the tool was deployed within the radiology department of an academic medical center and could be used for a given abdominal CT at the discretion of the interpreting radiologist. We retrospectively identified consecutive patients who underwent abdominal CT (in the period from January 2012 to April 2013), had no comparison CT scans available, and were reported to have a solid, noncalcified, pulmonary nodule. Concordance between radiologist follow-up recommendation and department guidelines was compared among three groups: patients scanned before implementation of the CDS tool; and patients scanned after implementation, with versus without use of the tool.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 409 patients were identified, including 268 for the control group. Overall, guideline concordance was higher after CDS tool implementation (92 of 141 [65%] versus 133 of 268 [50%], P = .003). This finding was driven by the subset of post-CDS implementation cases in which the CDS tool was used (57 of 141 [40%]). In these cases, guideline concordance was significantly higher (54 of 57 [95%]), compared with post-implementation cases in which CDS was not used (38 of 84 [45%], P < .001), and to a control group of patients from before implementation (133 of 268 [50%]; P < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A point-of-care CDS tool was associated with improved adherence to guidelines for follow-up of incidental pulmonary nodules.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. Electronic address: mlu@mgh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Michael T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rosman
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Carol C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Matthew D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Gilman
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: H Benjamin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Debra A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Gervais
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Tarik K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Alkasab
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Jo-Anne O
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Shepard
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Giles W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Boland
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Pari V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Pandharipande
mesh_terms: D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D033162:Incidental Findings; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D003074:Solitary Pulmonary Nodule / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: Clinical decision support; lung nodule