Clinical Decision Support Systems: Technology as a Solution to the Crisis of Mentorship, Balanced Caseloads, and Outcomes

Clinical decision support systems are quickly becoming essential tools for healthcare providers as the volume of available data increases alongside their responsibility to deliver value-based care. They have long been established parts of care in the medical community, as well as Physical and Occupational therapies. Reducing clinical variation and duplicative treatment, ensuring client and staff safety, and avoiding complications that may result in expensive clawbacks are top priorities for providers in the modern regulatory and reimbursement environment – and harnessing the hidden insights of big data is essential for achieving these goals. The amount of information BCBAs need to understand is getting so untenable that it’s unreasonable to expect the average clinician to integrate all of it into their decision-making effectively and reliably.

Best practices are ever-evolving to keep-pace with rapidly developing understanding of autism and neurodiversity. Clinical decision support (CDS) tools are designed to help sift through enormous amounts of data to suggest next steps for treatments, alert providers to available information they may not have seen, or catch potential problems, such as behaviors or co-existing conditions that clinicians have no experience with.

The presentation will include: An introduction to Clinical Decision Support Services (CDSS) as a technology in healthcare:

• Why we need CDSS to avoid binary thinking and biases in our treatment planning and outcomes management.
• How this is currently impacting autism services and individualized treatment pathways (or lack thereof).
• The complexity of Medical Necessity Criteria tied with Quality of Life and Socially Valid, individualized outcomes

• Understand CDSS in Healthcare: Participants will be able to grasp the essentials of Clinical Decision Support Systems and their critical role in managing healthcare data and improving value-based care.
• Overcome Biases with CDSS: Participants will be able to recognize the importance of CDSS in reducing biases in treatment planning, with a focus on enhancing individualized care in autism services.
• Navigate Complexity with CDSS: Participants will be able to understand how CDSS aids in tackling the complexities of Medical Necessity and Quality of Life outcomes, especially in the context of autism and neurodiversity services.