Clinical decision support improves autoimmune/paraneoplastic antibody panel utilization

Objectives Selection of autoimmune/paraneoplastic antibody panels remains challenging because health-care professionals often lack familiarity with panel contents, recommended specimen types, and antibody combinations for a given patient. Inappropriate use adds cost, prompts unnecessary additional workup, and delays the identification of the true cause of patient symptoms. In this study, we assessed whether order-entry clinical decision support can improve autoimmune/paraneoplastic antibody panel utilization. Methods An order-entry clinical decision support tool was embedded in the electronic health record system. Using a nested panel structure, the decision support tool prompted clinicians to identify their patient’s clinical presentation and guided selection of the appropriate tests. In addition, the tool featured a duplicate checking function to alert clinicians when placing multiple orders with substantially similar antibody content within a 3-month period. Panel ordering practices were assessed during the 12 months before implementation and compared with the 6 months immediately following implementation. Results Clinical decision support significantly reduced the monthly test volume of all orderables from 75.8 per month before implementation to 54.5 per month after implementation (incident rate ratio [IRR], 0.72; 95% CI, 0.63-0.81; P < .001). Placement of multiple orders for panels with substantially overlapping antibody content also decreased significantly, from 7.0 per month to 1.2 per month (IRR, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.07-0.33; P < .001). The number of neural-specific antibodies detected remained unchanged, but the reduction in total test volume increased the neural-specific antibody positivity rate from 4.2% to 6.8% (IRR, 1.61; 95% CI, 0.94-2.70; P = .075). Conclusions Order-entry clinical decision support offers an efficient and effective approach to improve the utilization of autoimmune/paraneoplastic antibody panels.