Hypertension decision support aid for use in clinical practice

The paper analyses the impact of modern decision support and draws attention to the fact that such systems are largely rejected by clinicians as inappropriate tools for use in patient centered environments. However the increasing complexity, rate of change and depth of medical knowledge has created a demand from the medical profession to seek support for clinical decision making. The decision aid presented is targeted at the needs of clinicians in primary care and focuses on the management of the medical condition, essential hypertension. The paper addresses three issues which have been demonstrated to be central to the introduction of decision support in primary care. Firstly the importance of defining clinical needs; secondly addressing the interface between clinicians, patients and decision support systems; thirdly utilising a knowledge base developed for, and published by, the medical community