The clinical spectrum of decision-support in oncology with a case report of a real world system

Clinical decision-support opportunities in oncology are numerous. Application programs may assist the diagnostic process, help define the proper therapy and adjust it to the patient's characteristics, streamline the delivery and follow-up of the treatments, provide tools for patient tracking and outcome measurements, and support patient care in the community. The authors and their colleagues have extended a novel general-purpose direct care-provider order entry system to take into account the particular aspects of chemotherapy ordering and decision-support. This new approach takes advantage of the infrastructure and functions of the integrated medical information system.