A Clinical Decision Support System for Adult ADHD Diagnostics Process Juha Kemppinen Eksote, Valto Käkelän katu 3, FI-53100 Lappeenranta, Finland juha.kemppinen@eksote.fi Timo Salmisaari Eksote timo.salmisaari@eksote.fi Jukka Korpela Roce Partners, Tekniikantie 14, FI-02150 Espoo, Finland jukka.korpela@roce.com Jussi Polkko Roce Partners jussi.polkko@roce.com Kalle Elfvengren Lappeenranta University of Technology, Skinnarilankatu 34, FI-53850 Lappeenranta, Finland kalle.elfvengren@lut.fi Markku Tuominen Lappeenranta University of Technology markku.tuominen@lut.fi Abstract Adult ADHD is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder, which is affecting the daily lives of 2-5 % of the adult population. This paper introduces a Clinical Decision Support System for diagnostics of ADHD. The introduced CDSS is currently in use in the South Karelia District of Social and Health Services (Eksote) in Finland. Eksote needed to establish the program for adult ADHD patients, and an evaluation, diagnosis and treatment process by a multi-professional team was developed. The new process was launched with tailor-made CDSS software support. The developed CDSS supports the implementation of the new adult ADHD patient evaluation, diagnosis and treatment process. The CDSS guarantees that the multi- professional team has from the start an algorithmic and extensive approach to the treatment of adult ADHD patients. The CDSS also warranted that Eksote has established a standard for the care of adult ADHD patients. The CDSS enables the possibility to make quick changes and development in the process. 1. Introduction Adult ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) is a complex neuropsychiatric disorder, which is affecting daily lives of 2-5 % of adult people. 10-20 % of people with common mental health problems have ADHD and 20 % of parents of ADHD children have adult ADHD [1]. An adult ADHD- patient has continuously difficulties in organizing, prioritizing and getting things started. He or she has difficulties in focusing, sustaining and shifting attention. Adult ADHD is currently underdiagnosed and undertreated in many European countries. Adult services for people with ADHD remain relatively scarce despite strong evidence for the benefits of diagnosing and treating ADHD in adults. [2] Effective management of adult ADHD patients is justified from a health economic perspective since undiagnosed and untreated ADHD will lead to inefficient health care use, less satisfactory clinical outcomes, lower personal well-being and poorer social and professional interactions. This paper presents a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) for effective diagnosis of adult ADHD patients. The goal of the developed CDSS was implement a new adult ADHD patient evaluation, diagnosis and treatment process. The introduced CDSS is currently in use in the South Karelia District of Social and Health Services (Eksote) in Finland. Eksote arranges secondary health care, primary health care, care for the elderly, and social welfare services for its eight member municipalities. Eksote works for delivering patient- oriented care to the approximately 130 000 citizens of South Karelia. It employs approximately 4 100 people and has a budget of 370 million euros. Eksote operates in a geographical area of over 5 600 square kilometres. 2. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Current advances in cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging, and behavioral and molecular genetics have provided evidence that the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a complex neurobiological disorder. ADHD is a neurocognitive behavioral developmental disorder most commonly 2013 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 1530-1605/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2013.30 2614 2013 46th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 1530-1605/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2013.30 2616