An interactive clinician-friendly query builder for decision support during ECG interpretation

Abstract

Decision support tools assist clinicians every day in healthcare by supporting decision making at the point of care. For example, decision support tools can help clinicians reduce misdiagnoses during the interpretation of the Electrocardiogram (ECG), by providing a reference to ECG background, causes, features, waves and segment data. As a potential solution to these problems an ECG interpretation clinical decision support tool (CDSS) was constructed. The prototype consisted of a web based user interface connected to a SQL database of thirty-eight identified ECG diagnostic interpretations. Benefits and risks of using a clinician friendly web based query-builder interface to perform SQL queries on the database against traditional ECG interpretation methods were identified. Ethical reasons for using the web based decision support system software to assist ECG interpretation are discussed. Potential benefits in using the ECG interpretation CDSS across computer /tablet/smart-phone devices to assist the clinician's diagnosis decision making process are identified.