Indexing guidelines: applications in use of pulmonary artery catheters and pressure ulcer prevention

• Published in: Proceedings - Symposium on Computer Application in Medical Care pp. 802 - 806
• Main Authors: Jenders, R A, Estey, G, Martin, M, Hamilton, G, Ford-Carleton, P, Thompson, B T, Oliver, D E, Eccles, R, Barnett, G O, Zielstorff, R D
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 1994
• Series: Support for Clinical Decision Making. Formalizing & Implementing Practice Guidelines
• Subjects: Abstracting and Indexing as Topic; Catheterization, Swan-Ganz; Computer Systems; Expert Systems; Humans; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Pressure Ulcer - prevention & control; Problem Solving; Pulmonary Artery - physiology; User-Computer Interface
• ISSN: 0195-4210

In a busy clinical environment, access to knowledge must be rapid and specific to the clinical query at hand. This requires indices which support easy navigation within a knowledge source. We have developed a computer-based tool for trouble-shooting pulmonary artery waveforms using a graphical index. Preliminary results of domain knowledge tests for a group of clinicians exposed to the system (N = 33) show a mean improvement on a 30-point test of 5.33 (p < 0.001) compared to a control group (N = 19) improvement of 0.47 (p = 0.61). Survey of the experimental group (N = 25) showed 84% (p = 0.001) found the system easy to use. We discuss lessons learned in indexing this domain area to computer-based indexing of guidelines for pressure ulcer prevention.