Computer, MD

Clinical decision support is an emerging type of healthcare information technology that aims to actively guide doctors' decision-making processes. In its various forms, it can help physicians design treatment regimens, regulate dosage, avoid potentially harmful drug interactions and allergies, order preventative screenings, and even establish a diagnosis. This project is a journalistic investigation of this new technology, its applications, and its effect on the medical profession. It examines two decision support systems, Partners Healthcare's clinical reminder system, and Logical Images' product VisualDx, in order to explore the potential for these technologies and how their use may change the practice of medicine. Through extensive interviews of experts in medicine, healthcare IT, and healthcare policy, it considers the major problems in implementing decision support, with emphasis on how the technology may affect doctors' autonomy, and how physicians' financial and professional incentives may influence how it is used.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Graduate Program in Science Writing

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Feblowitz, Joshua

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Alan Lightman.

• Graduate Program in Science Writing.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60839

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/60839