Co-Design of a Computer-Assisted Medical Decision Support System to Manage Antibiotic Prescription in an ICU Ward

About 37 thousand people die per year in Europe due to infections by resistant bacteria. Fighting antimicrobial resistances (AR) is a top priority to save lives and reduce costs. AR is triggered mostly by uncritical antibiotic prescription. This paper presents HAITool, a decision-making information system to support antibiotic prescription. The system was co-developed together with health professionals using Design Science Research Methodology, empowered with innovative data visualization techniques to improve AR management. HAITool includes integrated visualizations of patient, microbiology, and pharmacy data, facilitating clinical decision support, antibiotic prescriptions quality and antibiotic-resistant bacteria monitoring. It also includes an alert module that monitors conformance of antibiotic prescriptions with norms and guidelines. HAITool is evaluated using both the Österle principles and interviews with physicians and infection control team from three participant hospitals.