DSS in our lives

People may not be aware of it but Decision Support Systems, or DSS, are used in many different parts of life. DSS is responsible for medical decisions, agricultural developments and especially business planning. We will be discussing how we use this technology to augment human decision making.

DSS has many function, however the main “goal of a DSS is to make management more efficient and effective, particularly with ad hoc and discretionary decisions” (1). That is, the use of DSS will ensure that archaic decision making is not employed and companies, businesses, and fields work more efficiently.

It is also important for companies to teach the benefits of DSS and how easy it is to use systems like these. For instance, people don’t really know when they are using a DSS or not. But let me put it simply: "If you go to Weather.com and look at the forecast and decide to bring an umbrella with you, you're another successful user of decision-support systems," (2)

    Now for businesses, weather.com may not be the best DSS to find proper business conclusions. For most businesses DSS was relegated to only specific sections of companies but this is changing. “Managers are calling for DSS integration all over the companie” (2). This is similar to having a company that uses weather.com and umbrellas.com to find which umbrella is best for the expected weather. Moreover,  managers believe it creates higher efficiency and allows the managers to create concrete plans based on good information. That is, “Once you have visibility across the enterprise, you can make decisions on the data” (2). This concept is similar to cloud computing and the ability to share necessary information with all levels of the company. This creates a more efficient workforce.
    Decision Support Systems are not just for the business world. They can also be utilized to influence the decision which doctors make. That is a specific type of DSS known as “Clinical Decision Support Systems are active knowledge systems which use two or more items of patient data to generate case-specific advice” (3) This is helpful in ensuring that a patient will get the right medication or that a doctor can quickly make a diagnosis and a prescription depending on the ailments of a patient. Medical DSS is becoming more prevalent in hospitals and private practice. It helps avoid mistakes and catches repeat information, labeling it as a pattern to be investigated.

DSS is a part of our lives and as AI gets better DSS will too. Eventually we will have AI that can make decisions based on DSS programming. However, this comes with its own set of risks: AI may not be programmed with emotions and gut instincts. Logic can make harsh decisions, but by combining DSS with human compassion, we can create helpful, efficient solutions to medical, business, and every day decisions.

1. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Cos-Des/Decision-Support-Systems.html
2. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/72327/Decision_Support_Systems
3.http://www.openclinical.org/dss.html