Clinical decision su quality , safety

Developers of Clinical Decision Support Syst (CDSSs) have to date been more concerned w the efficacy of systems (e.g. measurable improvements in clinical outcomes) than with safety (e.g. potential for harmful side-effects) future CDSS developers will be required (by courts etc.) to acknowledge a “duty of care” covering all aspects of design, development a deployment. Experience in the transport, pow and other safety-critical industries has led to range of quality and safety assurance method whose adoption may be needed before CDSSs can safely become an integral part of routine patient care, and before the trust of healthcar professionals, patients and other stakeholder can be gained. No single method will be sufficient for safe development and deployme a range of techniques will be needed and used selectively. This paper is a contribution to discussion of quality, safety and legal liability issues in the medical informatics community.