AsthmaCritic: Assessment of the feasibility and effect of computer-based critiquing on asthma and COPD management in daily practice

Abstract

Medical knowledge is changing rapidly. Physicians have difficulty staying up to date with the changes; it can take many years for new knowledge to be integrated into daily practice. Delays in the integration of new knowledge can lead to suboptimal care and unnecessary health-care expenditures. Development of techniques that bring physician behavior more in line with current knowledge is the goal of active research. Experience with existing techniques has shown that timing is important for effective recall and application of recommended practices8. Passive techniques that ignore timing and that do not provide information at the moment the physician needs it most have been shown to have minimal effect on a physician’s knowledge and behavior. The increased use of computers in daily practice creates an opportunity to use computerized decision-support systems (CDSSs) to introduce new medical knowledge precisely at physicians’ moments of interest – during daily practice.