A study looking at a computer aid to help GPs decide who needs further tests for stomach symptoms (ECASS)

Study design
A total of 530 people from 42 GP practices joined this study. 

The GP practices taking part were put into two groups:

• half used usual guidelines to refer people for more tests
• half could use the electronic decision tool if they wanted to

Results
The results were similar in both groups:

• about half the people (50%) were referred for more tests
• about 2 out of 100 people (2%) were diagnosed with stomach or oesophageal cancer  

But the computer aided tool was not used as often as the research team would have liked.

There were problems with it which meant that many GPs chose not to use it. The issues included:

• the eCDS tool was slow to load and to use
• there were problems linking it to their existing computer systems
• there were restrictions on what programmes they were allowed to use on their computers

Conclusion
The team concluded that any eCDS tool has to be easy to use and link easily to existing systems. But even then, they suggest GPs may not use a decision making tool like this very often.

More detailed information
There is more information about this research in the reference below. 

Please note, this article is not in plain English. It has been written for health care professionals and researchers.

Electronic clinical decision support tool for assessing stomach symptoms in primary care (ECASS): a feasibility study 
G Rubin and others
BMJ Open, 2021. Volume 11, Issue 3.

Where this information comes from    
We have based this summary on the information in the article above. This has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed ) and published in a medical journal. We have not analysed the data ourselves. As far as we are aware, the link we list above is active and the article is free and available to view.