Healthcare Knowledge Collection for Clinical Decision Support Systems

This article presents several examples of how clinical decision support systems (CDSS) connected to knowledge bases help physicians and improves patient’s care. Results of a research in progress are presented, where the development of a data warehouse aims to get accurate assessments of a highly impairing mental condition. We argue that a data warehouse connected to a CDSS in the office of pediatricians will be beneficial for: physicians, patients, families, and researchers. A data warehouse was designed after careful analysis of information requirements found in literature, specific characteristics of the condition, and information available from health professionals. The theoretical framework includes the integration of a top-down with bottom up approaches to evaluate information packages and to create logical schemas. Implementation of a data warehouse is done and validation reports are designed applying a set of rules to dummy data. This system might improve children’s assessments and contributes to clinical research.