Introduction: Keeping up to date with the latest knowledge and current guidelines can be a challenge for clinicians. However, the importance of data driven practice is accepted by physicians and payors alike. The EAU Guidelines summaries best practice but accessing them may be time consuming and accurate application can be challenging particularly for less experienced staff. Siemens AIPC software offers a clinical decision support tool to aid decision making in prostate cancer care. We investigated the impact of guideline use on quality of treatment decisions as well as the impact of a novel, CE-certified clinical decision support tool (Siemens AIPC software) on the amount of time clinicians spend on decision-making. Methods: Ten urologists with different levels of clinical experience performed workup and decision making of 10 clinical cases including prostate cancer screening as well as newly diagnosed cancer. Decision making for these cases was performed in three settings: (i) without additional support, (ii) with usage of the digital version of the 2021 EAU prostate cancer guidelines and (iii) with usage of the decision support tool (AIPC). This resulted in 300 clinical decisions for diagnostic and/or treatment options. We compared physician’s expenditure of time, correctness of decision and completeness of options according to the EAU guidelines. Results: Using the novel software solution led to a significant reduction of physician’s expenditure of time for decision making. Times for decision making per case using online guidelines and the AIPC were 3.57 minutes and 0:14 minutes, respectively (p < 0.01). Overall times for decision making per urologist (for 10 cases) using online guidelines and the AIPC were 39.45 minutes and 02:20 minutes, respectively (p < 0.01). Decision making without guidelines support, online guideline usage and usage of AIPC was wrong in 33%, 14% and 0%, respectively (p < 0.01). Decision options without guidelines support, online guideline usage and usage of AIPC were complete in 61%, 80% and 100%, respectively (p < 0.01). Decision making without guidelines support, online guideline usage and usage of AIPC was correct including all options in 28%, 66% and 100%, respectively (p < 0.01) Conclusions: This study demonstrates the benefits of guideline application for quality of decision making. Decision support tools like AIPC have the potential to reduce the expenditure of time for decision making and to improve the quality of decision making for urologists with different levels of experience. Further studies are required to test decision support in more complex or advanced situations. SOURCE OF Funding: Siemens Healthineers, Erlangen, Germany
