Development and evaluation of a PDA-based decision support system for pediatric depression screening.
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Date
2007-10-03
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Abstract
Depression is under recognized in a variety of pediatric settings The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and initial evaluation of a personal digital assistant PDA based decision support system DSS for pediatric depression screening in ages 8 to 18 years of age by pediatric advanced practice nurse APN students Three aspects are described selection of depression screening instrument integration of the instrument into the PDA and quantitative usage and qualitative focus group evaluation Only one third of eligible patients were screened Twenty percent of those screened were identified as at risk for mood disorder The barriers to screening identified through focus groups included a lack of time knowledge intervention protocol referral resources PDA usability issues preceptor motivation and comfort as well as perceived or real cultural barriers Suggestions for educational research and interventions to integrate clinical based PDA based screening are discussed