One of the best ways in finding the medical decision-support systems importance is to analyze the contents of a major medical informatics international conference, like MIE’۹۹ for instance; so it can be easily observed that they are in a leading position.

There are a growing number of reports of medical decision-support systems in the international academic literature. Today’s clinical decision-support systems are being applied in a wide number of areas, including hepatic surgery, internal medicine, diagnosis of chest pain, management of tuberculosis, asthma, diabetes, and etc. There are two main areas of reported activity in the literature: The first is the computerized implementation of guidelines to provide guided clinician support during consultations and therapeutic and patient management recommendations. The second is the implementation of decision-support system to support the electronic prescription of drugs and medical tests. These systems focus on providing alerts and reminders, and critiquing the orders placed by clinicians. Most of them usually are linked to an electronic medical record in order to provide customized alerts, reminders and therapeutic recommendations.

Searching of international literature and web-based resources will also show a widespread using of medical decision-support systems. Several systems have been in routine use for decades; however, the majority of them are single-institution ones that they are implemented and maintained in one health care setting. Prescribing Rationally with Decision Support in General Practice Study (PRODIGY) is a rare example of a nation-wide deployment of a medical decision-support system, supporting prescribing decisions in general practice in the United Kingdom. PRODIGY offers clinical management advice following a diagnosis, including prescribing and non-drug advice, doctor/patient shared screens, patient information leaflets, advice on when to refer and when to investigate, and reference and learning materials for use outside the consultation. Prescribing advice includes a choice of three or more drug treatments as well as non-drug treatments. Upon selection of a drug, the system provides appropriate dosage information, and checks for allergies, contraindications and interactions. The management of PRODIGY rests with the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). Also, the National Guideline Clearance House in the United States  is a rare example of a system with international reach, although it is only marginally classifiable as a Type 1 medical decision-support system.