An open data approach for clinical appropriateness

Abstract

In recent years there have been partially unexpected qualitative and quantitative increase in clinical exams demand. Although on the one hand this is the positive result of better health awareness, mostly in terms of prevention, on the other hand it is the direct and logical consequence of the defensive behaviour, which arises from the potential occurrence of legal controversies and of the clinician’s unawareness about the cost of examinations. To reduce the occurrence of unnecessary clinical tests we propose an approach based on Open Data and Open Software that can be adapted to existing medical information systems to enforce a suitable set of “appropriateness rules”. The idea is to directly intervene at the moment of the request emission, in order to avoid unnecessary demands, which have no urgent and valid motivations and/or no value for patients.