Many potential benefits have been remarked in the literature for medical decision-support systems. The following provides a review of some of the key benefits of these systems in improving the safety, quality and efficiency of healthcare:

1. Diagnostic Decision Support: As mentioned before, an early goal of medical decision-support systems was to help physicians in making true medical decisions. Today’s systems are also designed to consider patient symptoms and signs and create a list of possible disorders and recommend further tests.
2. Reduction in Medication Errors and Adverse Drug Events: The interest in medical decision-support systems has been generated by growing evidence of their effectiveness in reducing medication errors, one of the most significant causes of iatrogenic injury, death and costs in hospitals. In the US, it is estimated that over 770000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals as a result of adverse drug events and there is much hope to reduce its rate by application of clinical decision-support systems.
3. Enhancing Prescribing Method: Clinical decision-support systems have the potential to not only reduce medications errors but also to change medication prescribing patterns, resulting in more cost-effective drug selection. Moreover, many physicians don’t have a very clear idea of how to prescribe a drug for their patients or what information they need to provide. These systems can provide step by step guidance to the process of rational prescribing as same as providing source of new ideas and perhaps an incentive for change.
4. Development of Evidence-Based Medicine: Medical decision-support systems can increase compliance with recommended clinical guidelines and reduce rates of inappropriate diagnostic tests. These guidelines generally include screening and prevention (vaccination for pregnant women who are planning international travel), diagnosis and pre-diagnosis management of patients (evaluation of chest pain in the emergency department), indications for use of surgical procedures (indications for carotid endarterectomy), appropriate use of specific technologies and tests as part of clinical care (use of autologous or donor blood for transfusions), and guidelines for care of clinical conditions (management of patients following coronary-artery bypass graft). As a result, clinical decision-support systems will have the potential to make development of evidence-based medicine.
5. Time Releasing for Patient Care: One potential benefit of the implementation of medical decision-support systems is that they increase the efficiency of administrative tasks and thereby allow clinicians to spend more time in direct patient care. Patient care time is normally limited by administrative tasks such as searching indexes, writing orders, remembering notes and precautions; hence, application of computerized decision-support systems will reasonably cause to save more time.
6. Improving Access and Use of Online Information: As the volume of published medical information grows exponentially, it is becoming increasingly difficult for health professionals to update their knowledge. They are subjected to significant information overload, with knowledge from many sources arriving in many different formats. Computerized decision-support systems offer health care practitioner a means to rapidly access medical information at the point of care. Provision of access to online information via a point of care system may occur as either an ‘active request’ for information by the clinician (e.g. made a request to view an online clinical guideline) or alternatively information may be delivered to the clinician in response to an event, such as making an order selection.
7. Data Feedback to Change Clinical Practice Patterns: Computerization of aspects of care via the implementation of medical decision-support systems presents an opportunity to more easily review clinical practice patterns. For example, data regarding patterns of medications and tests ordered for specific patient groups provides an important evidence base for reviewing current practice and for discussing variations in practice. Studies have demonstrated that feedback to clinicians of data regarding clinical practice has a positive impact on care patterns, especially by improving outcomes for a particular class of complaints, diagnoses or procedures.
8. Improvements in Patient Satisfaction: While improvement in patient satisfaction as a result of the adoption of clinical decision-support systems has been advanced as a potential benefit, there is little substantiating evidence. However, the enhancement of patient education and empowerment by prescribing in more details and ordering to go on appropriate diet is proved.
9. Reductions in Costs: Studies relating to the impact of medical decision-support systems on the efficiency of health care delivery have proved major reductions in costs. They are generally due to fewer medication errors and adverse drug events, increased efficiency in the execution of patient care —particularly in relation to appropriate use of interventions, referrals, tests and drugs—, increased use of generic drug brands, pay-for-performance initiatives, and reducing length of inpatient stay.
10. Providing Reports and Statistical Analysis: By saving electronically patients’ information, clinical decision-support systems would be able to extract required data from database just in a few seconds, analyze it statistically and present in desired technical formats. Such reports are beneficial tools for physicians and caregivers to manage their healthcare centers.