Letter to Editor: Clinical Information Intelligence: A New Concept in the Field of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM)

Health information plays an important role in increasing the community's awareness of health issues, developing the ability of people to adapt to the surrounding environment and improve the quality of human`s life (1). Physicians also need reliable clinical information to prevent, diagnose, treat and rehabilitate patients. This information should be up-to-date and based on sufficient scientific evidence. Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is the result of this type of perception. In this area, physicians, should not only have experience, but also should be familiar with the sources of clinical information and technologies related with access to this information. Sahebalzamani et al quoted Sultani and Ahmadi Abhari as saying that "in fact, the use of the best evidence are evidences that are obtained from clinical research with the least error on patients and the efficacy and safety of treatment diet, prevention, the value of diagnostic tests and other health care items in different conditions of the patients are taken into consideration. In fact, EBM teaches how to be good users of health information" (2).
Clinical decision-making is not based on mental judgment and guess. Clinical decision-making should be based on the knowledge, experience of the physicians and other colleagues, considering patient feedbacks and scientific evidence. If physicians have adequate, up-to-date and valid evidence for a specific condition (such as illness), decision-making and treatment will be easier, more effective and successful. This ability and capability can be called “Clinical Information Intelligence (CII)”.
This term was extracted from technological intelligence, which is defined as "the ability and capability of technology professionals to make informed decisions about the current and future status of technology in an organization, and the opportunities and challenges of using it" (3). In fact, clinical information intelligence is the physician's ability to choose the best decision based on his or her own experiences, scientific evidence, colleague’s experiences, and the patient's values. The healthcare systems require physicians with clinical information intelligence capabilities. This ability will lead to better and more accurate decision-making by physicians, increase patient satisfaction and improve patient quality of life. To enhance this capability, physicians need to be familiar with clinical information resources such as EBM, PubMed and ClinicalKey and specialized resources. They should also have cognitive-behavioral abilities and capabilities. However, given the rapid changes in clinical information and clinical information retrieval technologies, medical librarians need to provide good policies, training and planning, access infrastructure, and the use of clinical information and training for physicians and patients. Physicians will increase their clinical information intelligence and capabilities by participating in these courses. Also, enhancing patient medical knowledge through information therapy and providing feedback and their participation in clinical decision-making can help to operationalize clinical information intelligence. Health information technology professionals also provide the necessary platform for telemedicine in order to health care and diagnosis and develop applications that provide physicians with access to reliable health information (4, 5). In summary, the capabilities that enhance the clinical information intelligence of physicians include the power of appraisal of scientific evidence, scientific communication with other colleagues around the world, a positive attitude toward specialized care, analyzing different patient situations, the power to utilize the knowledge and experience of the treatment teams in clinical decision- making, and the ability to identify opportunities or threats of clinical information for physicians and their parent organization.