Clinical Decision Support (CDS)

Also known as: CDS

Software that gives clinicians patient-specific guidance or alerts at the point of care.

Clinical decision support (CDS) is software that provides clinicians with patient-specific information, alerts, or recommendations at the point of care, intended to support clinical decisions rather than make them automatically.

CDS ranges from simple rule-based alerts (like a drug interaction warning) to AI-driven tools that surface differential diagnoses or risk scores. Regulatory treatment differs depending on how much autonomy the software has and how directly it drives a clinical action.

← Back to Glossary