Making the right decision in a clinical setting could mean the difference between life and death. Medical errors claim nearly 250,000 lives annually, have other devastating effects on patients, and drastically increase healthcare costs. Approximately 150 real-time decisions are made daily by healthcare providers, acting under high pressure and considering several data points.

However, this task can now be made less daunting with the help of next-gen clinical decision support systems (CDSSs). Their goal is to provide timely information to healthcare providers to support their decision-making, facilitating better patient outcomes. 

Even though CDSSs date back to the 1970s, they have evolved significantly from reactive one-off alerts to currently possessing comprehensive and interactive features. Start-ups in the CDSS space are employing machine learning, greater computing power, and complex algorithms to improve procedures such as patient risk stratification, treatment pathways, and diagnostic imaging analytics. 

In this Edge insight, we take a closer look at how decision support tools are used by healthcare providers, what drives the market, and what the future may hold for this industry.