The use of technology including digital decision support tools has become more ubiquitous in general practice. Australian GPs’ use of digital decision support tools, the sentiments, and associations with practitioner and practice characteristics. Positive and negative sentiments were considered facilitators and barriers to the uptake of digital decision support tools.

Secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study was undertaken with data from the Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL) survey was analysed. 3,126 GPs responded from a total of 27,829 participants representing all types of physicians, surveyed in September 2018. Descriptive statistics was used to examine facilitators and barriers to GP uptake of digital decision support tools, and multivariable logistic regression was used to examine its associations with practitioner and practice characteristics.

2240 GPs in this study (83.8%) reported using digital decision support tools with largely positive sentiments regarding technology use in consultations. Reservations include privacy concerns, system incompatibility, and lack of support. Those using digital decision support tools were more likely to be female, younger and bulk-billing.

Perceived facilitators of digital decision support tools in Australian general practice include improvements in patient outcomes, satisfaction, care processes, and saving time. Barriers include concerns about data privacy, lack of support, incompatibility, and being time-consuming. There was higher uptake amongst bulk-billing and female practitioners. Further research on the clinical usefulness of digital decision support tools and its impact on decision-making in general practice would be of value.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has required healthcare systems to meet new demands for rapid information dissemination, resource allocation, and data reporting. To help address these challenges, our institution leveraged electronic health record (EHR)–integrated clinical pathways (E-ICPs), which are easily understood care algorithms accessible at the point of care.

To describe our institution’s creation of E-ICPs to address the COVID-19 pandemic, and to assess the use and impact of these tools.

Urban academic medical center with adult and pediatric hospitals, emergency departments, and ambulatory practices.

Using the E-ICP processes and infrastructure established at our institution as a foundation, we developed a suite of COVID-19–specific E-ICPs along with a process for frequent reassessment and updating. We examined the development and use of our COVID-19–specific pathways for a 6-month period (March 1–September 1, 2020), and we have described their impact using case studies.

In total, 45 COVID-19–specific pathways were developed, pertaining to triage, diagnosis, and management of COVID-19 in diverse patient settings. Orders available in E-ICPs included those for isolation precautions, testing, treatments, admissions, and transfers. Pathways were accessed 86,400 times, with 99,081 individual orders were placed. Case studies demonstrate the impact of COVID-19 E-ICPs on stewardship of resources, testing optimization, and data reporting.

E-ICPs provide a flexible and unified mechanism to meet the evolving demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, and they continue to be a critical tool leveraged by clinicians and hospital administrators alike for the management of COVID-19. Lessons learned may be generalizable to other urgent and nonurgent clinical conditions.