This Phase project focuses on the development of decision-support software which will enhance the utility of existing psychometric instruments for clinicians engaged in making substance abuse assessments and treatment plans. This software, when integrated with an existing battery of instruments called the Clinical Assessment and Return-to-Work System (CARES), will improve objectivity, depth, and accessibility of information available to support assessments and treatment plans. Case-based reasoning constitutes the core technology of this software, and enables an automated system to yield recommendations for the case at hand by drawing from experiences with similar cases in the past.Phase I activities will center on designing, developing and testing a prototype case-based reasoning engine using a panel of expert c\substance abuse clinicians and an existing database of over 50,000 patients treated for substance abuse. Each year, more than 25,000 clinicians render some kind of substance abuse services to several million employees and patients. In order to cope with the pressures and demands of rising volume, lower budgets, and stiffer public policy on health care quality and public safety, clinicians need tools which, comfortably and economically, deliver objective and comprehensive information that facilitates rapid, consistent and defensible decision-making.National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
