Drug prescription behavior and decision support systems

Adverse drug events plague the outcomes of health care services. In this research, we propose a clinical learning model that incorporates the use of a decision support system (DSS) in drug prescriptions to improve physicians' decisions about the initial drug selection and administration. The model allows for both the analytical investigation of the effects of different DSS features on clinical learning and the estimation of the physician learning behavior given a panel data set. The analytical results suggest that using a DSS to improve physicians' prescription decisions would positively influence their clinical learning. Conversely, without improvements in successful drug selection, the use of a DSS would negatively affect clinical learning. The empirical results provide further evidence on the factors that drive physicians' responses to information sources and the extent to which they rely on clinical experience in prescribing drugs.

► DSS improves clinical learning and may reduce adverse drug events. ► Clinical learning deteriorates with poor decision support on drug selection. ► The learning based benefits of DSS features vary depending on physician profiles.