CDS Task Force

Owned by Davide Sottara
Last updated: Nov 09, 2015

The goal of this task force is the architecting of services functional to the implementation of Clinical Decision Support

Clinical Decision Support 

Clinical Decision Support (CDS) is a particular type of knowledge-driven application. In a broad sense, it encompasses
every service that provides in-context clinical guidance for an agent (provider, patient, but also software).
In a more narrow and classic sense, it refers to the ability to generate recommendations / alerts / reminders about
what could be done to (including order sets) or gathered from (including structured documentation) a patient.

There is a variety of CDS and CDS-related artifacts, and a number of ways to express them.


TBD - a standard taxonomy of CDS artifacts

CDS Implementation Techniques

While CDS is often derived from (business) rules and implemented as (ECA) rules, CDS services are often but not necessarily 
implemented using rule engines in their backend.

However, it is important to remember that rule engines can be used for other purposes, and that rule engines are neither
necessary nor sufficient for a CDS implementation. For example, most CDS services also require a terminology capability,
either provided internally or outsourced to an external service. 

CDS As a Service

In a Service-oriented approach, CDS is executed statelessly. It is a responsibility of the client to provide enough context and information
for the CDS service to apply the knowledge  

Core CDS architecture and canonical service dependencies (in alignment with the core of the CDS Collaboratory architecture)