Abstract Existing computer-based ordering systems for physicians provide effective drug-centered checks but offer little assistance for optimizing the overall patient-centered treatment strategy. Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines have been developed to disseminate state-of-the-art information concerning treatment strategy but these guidelines are poorly used in routine practice. The ASTI project aims to design a guideline-based ordering system to enable general practitioners to avoid prescription errors and to improve compliance with best therapeutic practices. The « critic mode » operates as a background process and corrects the physician's prescription on the basis of automatically triggered elementary rules that account for isolated guideline recommendations. The « guided mode » directs the physician to the best treatment by browsing a comprehensive guideline knowledge base represented as a decision tree. A first prototype, applied to hypertension, is currently under development.
['Brigitte Séroussi', 'Jacques Bouaud', 'Hervé Dréau', 'Hector Falcoff', 'Christine Riou', 'M. Joubert', 'Christian Simon', 'Gérard Simon', 'Alain Venot']
ASTI: A Guideline-based Drug-Ordering System for Primary Care