What is Clinical Content?


There are many classes of electronic information systems for healthcare known as Clinical Information Systems or CIS. Systems that manage patient information collected during the patient-encounter are typically the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems with clinical documentation, order entry, and decision support elements. Advanced EMR platforms integrate laboratory, diagnostic imaging, pharmaceutical services as well as nursing.

To manage a patient encounter or visit requires consideration of evidence supporting the diagnosis and management of the patient, and consideration of the local health system environment including local practice policies, availability of services, and technology maturity. The systems used by clinicians must support responding to the patient’s needs with the best possible service as supported by evidence but also under the constraints of what can be done in the care facility.

Clinical Content can be considered as standardized, expert or evidence-based clinical knowledge that manifests as clinical decision support interventions, either paper or electronic, in the clinical process.

Clinical Content, in an electronic world, is the design, blueprint, or schematics of intelligent clinical workflow embedded in the CIS to support care providers as they do their work. It defines the content, presentation, and behavior of the CIS including:

  • access to supporting evidence
  • guiding information on procedures such as order sets
  • information on local practice policies
  • transitions that follow the clinical process and workflow
  • standardized order sets with available services to support the care plan
  • clinical documentation to capture and measure relevant and necessary information
  • accessing relevant results where appropriate
  • produce alerts or warnings when potentially dangerous conditions arise
  • and other such interventions.

All these clinical decision support tools and interventions must manifest on the screens of the CIS at the appropriate time and must be carefully designed, managed and thoroughly tested to promote safe, timely, and high-quality care.

As such clinical content in CIS forms the foundation of standardized, measurable, integrated and interoperable clinical care.