Medical decision-support systems and the concept of context

Med Inform Internet Med. 2004 Jun;29(2):109-18. doi: 10.1080/14639230410001684404.

Abstract

Medical decision-support systems are of necessity multi-contextual in nature. There are always at least two contexts involved in the use of such systems: the expert knowledge-provider context and the end-user context. To show this, we present examples of context-dependent aspects significant to the use of decision-support systems. The existence of discrepancies between the contexts threatens to disrupt the rationale for using decision-support systems: for the system to transfer knowledge from the expert to the end-user. Both theoretical and empirical studies show that such discrepancies exist and that they may be detrimental to the use of decision-support systems. Systems must thus give support in interpreting the output produced by the system in the context of the end-user.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Attitude of Health Personnel
  • Attitude to Computers
  • Communication Barriers
  • Computer Simulation
  • Conflict, Psychological
  • Decision Support Techniques*
  • Expert Systems* / instrumentation
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
  • Humans
  • Information Dissemination* / methods
  • Needs Assessment
  • Set, Psychology
  • Systems Integration
  • User-Computer Interface*