In healthcare, the use of clinical dashboards as audit and feedback (A&F) or clinical decision support systems (CDSS) is on the rise. For a study, researchers sought to examine the impact of clinical dashboards used as CDSS or A&F tools (as a stand-alone intervention or as part of a multidimensional intervention) in primary care or hospital settings on drug prescription/adherence and test ordering. From their inception through August 2021, 7 major databases were combed for pertinent studies. About 2 authors extracted data independently, assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane RoB II scale, and rated the certainty of the evidence using GRADE. Extracted data on trial characteristics and intervention effect sizes. A narrative synthesis was conducted to describe the included studies’ findings. There were 11 randomized studies included. About 8 trials assessed clinical dashboards as stand-alone interventions and yielded contradictory results about changes in antibiotic prescribing and no effects on statin prescribing relative to standard care. In patients with inflammatory arthritis, dashboards boosted drug adherence, but not in kidney transplant recipients. About 3 trials examining dashboards as part of multicomponent interventions revealed a decrease in the use of opioids for low back pain, an increase in the number of patients obtaining cardiovascular risk screening, and a decrease in the administration of antibiotics for upper respiratory infections. There was scant evidence that dashboards incorporated into electronic medical record systems and utilized as feedback or decision support tools were connected with benefits in medication use and order placement.
