Clinical decision support (CDS) refers to electronic technology used to enhance clinical decision making. For example, computerized physician order entry with integrated CDS in principle offers an electronic layer of review for ordering prescriptions.
An important feature of CDS is automated warnings issued whenever potential drug interactions or other contraindications arise. In practice, however, CDS systems often have been overinclusive in the warnings they generate, to a point at which physician "alert fatigue" may in large part undermine the utility the systems offer....
The remainder of this op-ed can be found at jama.ama-assn.org.
JAMA. 2011;306(1):90-91.