A Duel between Clinical Decision Support System and Healthcare Professionals: A Study in Malaysia

Abstract

As clinical IT can improve the productivity and performance (at different levels) of hospitals, researchers have tried to find out factors affecting the successful adoption of technological advancement (especially, progression in information technology) among healthcare professionals. One of the most important determinants influencing the success of clinical decision support system (CDS) adoption is that to what degree the system is accepted by healthcare professionals. Hospitals invest in CDS systems with the hope of cutting medication errors and increasing the quality of products or services. But if users are not likely to accept the systems, hospitals can not benefit significantly from the systems. On the other hand, if users accept CDS system they become more willing to make use of the systems in their practice patterns.  The usage of CDS can be a sign of the system success in hospitals. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the reasons that motivate healthcare professionals to use CDS in hospitals. In this study, a series of interviews has been conducted among 21 healthcare professionals in Malaysia. The content analysis has been used to analyze the interviews in this context. The results reflect the importance of perceived threat to professional autonomy, level of interactivity with CDS, level of involvement in decision making, computer self efficacy and subjective norms in predicting healthcare professionals’ intention to use CDS system in Malaysia. Based on the qualitative study, a conceptual mode has been proposed for an empirical study in future research.