Digital solutions for decision support in general practice – a rapid review focused on systems developed for the universal healthcare setting in Denmark

Abstract

Abstract Background Digital health solutions hold the potential for supporting general practitioners in decision-making, and include telemedicine systems, decision support systems, patient apps, wearables, fitness trackers, etc. Aim This review aimed to identify digital solutions developed for, tested, or implemented in general practice to support the decisions of GPs in disease detection and management, using Denmark as an example country of a universal healthcare setting. Methods This study was conducted as a rapid review. The primary search included a database search conducted in Embase and MEDLINE. The supplementary search was conducted in Infomedia and additionally included a snowball search in reference lists and citations of key articles identified in the database search. Titles were screened by two reviewers. Results The review included 15 studies as key articles describing a total of 13 digital solutions for decision support in general practice in Denmark. 1.123 titles were identified through the database search and 240 titles were identified through the supplementary and snowball search. Conclusions The review identified 13 digital solutions for decision support in general practice in a Danish healthcare setting aimed at detection and/or management of cancer, COPD, type 2 diabetes, depression, liver disease or multiple lifestyle-related diseases. Implementation aspects should be reported more transparently in future publications to enable applicability of digital solutions as decision support to aid general practitioners in disease detection and management.

Keywords

• Digital solutions
• Digital health
• Decision support
• Decision aid
• General practice
• Primary care