Decisioning in Healthcare

A recent article in Health Data Management talked about the growth in decision support systems in the healthcare industry - both payers and providers. This was an interesting article more for what it did not discuss - the growing use of business rules to automate decisions in healthcare. This kind of decision automation is complimentary to the kinds of decision support being described. Not only are software companies like Misys, IDX and Siemen's Medical embedding business rules engines like Blaze Advisor, hospitals and healthcare payers are also using them directly. These usages of business rules range from Physician Point of Entry verification, drug interaction notification and treatment recommendations to billing, claims and fraud. Healthcare is getting its IT act together and I think business rules, and analytics, are going to be a key component in the healthcare IT infrastructure of the future.