The design of an EHR for clinical decision support

In this paper, we give an overview of methadone treatment in Ireland and outline the rationale for designing an electronic healthcare record (EHR) with extensibility, interoperability and decision support functionality. Incorporating the openEHR standard, we designed a set of archetypes in line with the current best practice and clinical guidelines. They guide the information gathering process. A web-based data entry system has been implemented, incorporating elements of the paper-based prescription form, while at the same time facilitating the decision support function. The data collected via this Irish system can be aggregated into a larger dataset, if necessary, for analysis and evidence gathering, since we adopted the openEHR standard. It will be later extended to include the functionalities of prescribing drugs other than methadone during our work at the HRB Centre for Primary Care Research.