Decision-support tool may help clinicians to appropriately treat children with diarrhea A decision-support tool that could be accessed via mobile devices may help clinicians in lower-resource settings avoid unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions for children with diarrhea, a study published today in eLife shows. The preliminary findings suggest that incorporating real-time environmental, epidemiologic, and clinical data into an easy-to-access, electronic tool could help clinicians appropriately treat children with diarrhea even when testing is not available. This could help avoid the overuse of antibiotics, which contributes to the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria. Diarrhea is a common condition among children in low-resource settings. Antibiotics are often prescribed for it, despite the fact these medications will not help patients who have diarrhea caused by viruses. Helping clinicians determine if a case of diarrhea is likely caused by a virus or bacteria could help reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions."