M. Gabriela Sava, Alia Stanciu, James G. Dolan, Jerrold H. May, Luis G. Vargas
{"title":"Implications of the stability analysis of preferences for personalised colorectal cancer screening","authors":"M. Gabriela Sava, Alia Stanciu, James G. Dolan, Jerrold H. May, Luis G. Vargas","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1771","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1771","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Patients are increasingly interested in becoming involved in the medical decision-making process. As a result, healthcare providers and researchers are concerned with finding new ways to integrate patients' preferences, by understanding their commitment to and the stability of those preferences. Preventive medicine, such as colorectal cancer screening, presents an opportunity for personalising the decision-making trajectory based on patients' preferences. In this paper, we propose a framework for a joint decision-making process, capable of integrating patients' changing preferences, as described by a stability analysis of those preferences and design scenarios for implementing the process in clinical practice. In this study, a secondary data analysis, we present scenarios that demonstrate how the stability analysis of an Analytic Network Process (ANP) model supports personalising the process of agreeing on an appropriate colorectal cancer screening option. We illustrate the framework using two patients whose preferences have different stabilities and for whom the healthcare provider has different rankings for the recommended alternatives. The results show the differences in additional medical information the healthcare provider might need to provide as part of the joint decision-making process in order to reach an agreement between the patient and the provider. A stability analysis of the patient's preferences provides the healthcare provider with a mapping of the preferred options. It also shows how the patient's most preferred alternative might change as the patient obtains additional relevant medical information. Knowing how the patient's priorities might change supports a personalisation of the medical decision-making process. We conclude that the healthcare provider can utilise the stability analysis of a patient's preferences to identify possible dialogue paths that would enable reaching a consensus about an appropriate screening option.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"29 3-4","pages":"244-258"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45123821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The multiple-criteria decision analysis of the financial and business models for the construction of new nuclear unit in the Czech Republic","authors":"Tereza Stašáková, Tomáš Vlček","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1770","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1770","url":null,"abstract":"<p>When discussing their future energy mix, many countries are reconsidering the position of the nuclear energy. One of the main arguments against new nuclear plants is the extremely high investment cost. Nevertheless, some countries still perceive nuclear energy as a strategic sector and are willing to invest in it, using different financial strategies. The Czech Republic has initiated the decision-making process for building and financing a new nuclear unit. This article introduces readers to the general issues of nuclear financing in a liberalised European market and, using multiple-criteria decision analysis, identifies the most suitable model for financing the construction of the new unit in the Czech Republic. The three models under consideration are introduced using the examples of three European nuclear power plant projects: Hinkley Point C, Hanhikivi and Paks II. The article compares the three new nuclear power plant projects, each representing a various financial model, with the 2015 National Action Plan for the Development of the Nuclear Energy Sector in the Czech Republic and evaluates them to choose the best model for the new nuclear power plant in the Czech Republic. Thus, it provides a comprehensive overview of the link between theoretical models, their application, and the transferability of the models.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"29 3-4","pages":"230-243"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44367852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Dini Maghfirra, Jared L. Cohon, Paulina Jaramillo, M. Granger Morgan
{"title":"Optimizing an equitable micro-hydropower deployment: Application of a multi-objective method for rural Indonesia","authors":"Dini Maghfirra, Jared L. Cohon, Paulina Jaramillo, M. Granger Morgan","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1769","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1769","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Much of the developing world is still struggling to provide electricity to rural populations. Extending the grid is frequently not feasible or too expensive in rural and remote areas. In such situations, micro-hydropower (MHP) can be a cost-effective source of renewable off-grid electricity and can be easier to implement and more reliable than a number of other generation technologies. This study employs multi-objective mixed-integer-linear programming (MOMILP) to identify nondominated MHP portfolios to meet rural electricity needs across Indonesia. Besides maximizing the new MHP generation capacity within a fixed budget, this study also incorporates equity as an objective. The equity issue becomes crucial to ensure that government resources are deployed in a manner that considers impacts for the entire population. The MOMILP optimizes a weighted objective function that applies different relative weights to the objectives of generation capacity and equity, subject to several constraints on resource availability and capacity shortfall, as well as budget. In this way, we identify solutions on the Pareto frontier for investment in MHP generation in remote Indonesian rural communities. We illustrate the tradeoffs involved in meeting capacity shortfalls with and without considering equity across provinces and identify non-dominated MHP portfolios that the Indonesian government could implement to increase rural electrification efficiently.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"29 3-4","pages":"218-229"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49210571","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cristina Collicott, Esther Bonacker, Ina Lammel, Katrin Teichert, Michal Walzcak, Philipp Süss
{"title":"Interactive navigation of multiple convex patches","authors":"Cristina Collicott, Esther Bonacker, Ina Lammel, Katrin Teichert, Michal Walzcak, Philipp Süss","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1768","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1768","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Among the approaches to multi-criteria decision making, Pareto navigation is a powerful, interactive tool that has been successfully applied to a variety of real-world problems with continuous decision variables, including chemical process design, drug manufacturing, logistical vehicle routing problems, and radiotherapy treatment planning. However, many real-life problems are formulated using both continuous and binary decision variables. In this work, we introduce <i>patch navigation</i> as an algorithmic concept that extends Pareto navigation to this type of problem where the number of binary variables is relatively small. The underlying idea is the navigation across a finite set of individual, convex fronts each associated with a specific configuration of the binary variables (<i>patches</i>). We show how the user interactions employed in current Pareto front navigation, namely selection and restriction, can be adopted to handle multiple patches. These routines enable the decision maker (DM) to change the solution in small increments while controlling the related trade-offs. We also describe additional, patch-specific routines that enable the DM to consider only an individually chosen subset of patches in the navigation. To illustrate patch navigation, and to demonstrate its usefulness for real-life problems, we present numerical examples of patch navigation along with an application motivated by radiotherapy planning.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"28 5-6","pages":"311-321"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1002/mcda.1768","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48731075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Satender Pal Singh, Tithishri Kundu, Arnab Adhikari, Sumanta Basu
{"title":"A joint weighting and modified weighted aggregated sum product assessment-based methodology for the measurement of patient satisfaction: Evidence from Indian healthcare","authors":"Satender Pal Singh, Tithishri Kundu, Arnab Adhikari, Sumanta Basu","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1767","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1767","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In recent times, the increasing healthcare spending due to the rising health awareness signifies the importance of identifying the appropriate factors that influence patient satisfaction, weight assignment to these factors, and measurement of patient satisfaction becomes important. However, devising a robust objective weighting method for weight assignment of the factors and an analytical method for determining patient satisfaction scores has not been paid enough attention. Motivated by these issues, this work focuses on devising a robust objective weighting method for weight assignment of the factors that influence patient satisfaction, an analytical method for determining patient satisfaction, and real-life implementation. We first propose a joint weighting methodology to allocate the weights to the factors by integrating the weights determined by different objective weighting methods, namely, mean weight, SD, entropy, criteria importance through intercriteria correlation, and preference selection index-based approaches. Next, using the weights of these factors, we design a modified weighted aggregated sum product assessment method to determine a single patient satisfaction score by integrating the scores obtained from the weighted sum model and the weighted product model. The proposed methodology is applied to a real-world dataset provided by a large healthcare provider and diagnostic clinic in Kolkata, India, to exhibit the real-life implementation. The theoretical insights obtained through non-parametric tests highlight the significant difference between joint weighting-based and single weighting-based methods. The context-specific insights signify that the patients suffering from arthritis and hyperlipidaemia exhibit lower satisfaction. Also, the patients suffering from dengue express lower satisfaction than the patients suffering from malaria. Additionally, the healthcare provider should focus on improving the service quality of the departments such as ophthalmology, ENT, and dietician.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"29 1-2","pages":"5-22"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1002/mcda.1767","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43298569","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Eduardo Bizzo, Rodrigo Furst, Jorge Junio Moreira Antunes, Peter Wanke, Franklin G. Mixon Jr.
{"title":"State-level educational performance in Brazil: A MCDM approach taking a governance perspective","authors":"Eduardo Bizzo, Rodrigo Furst, Jorge Junio Moreira Antunes, Peter Wanke, Franklin G. Mixon Jr.","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1765","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1765","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study presents an educational performance assessment of Brazilian state-level units using the technique for order preference by similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS). Although this technique is a well-established multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model that can be applied across diverse areas, it has yet to be applied to an analysis of primary and secondary education. We assess how state-level units in Brazil perform in terms of primary and secondary educational inputs and outputs during the period from 2013 to 2017. We handle epistemic uncertainty with regard to weight definition using maximal information entropy. Additionally, a Tobit regression approach on performance scores is developed. Results show that region of the country plays an important role in determining educational performance. Moreover, results indicate that gross domestic product (GDP) is positively related to education scores while infant mortality is negatively associated with educational performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"29 3-4","pages":"199-217"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1002/mcda.1765","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49313675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Organizational hindrances to Healthcare 4.0 adoption: An multi-criteria decision analysis framework","authors":"Bhaskar B. Gardas","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1766","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1766","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Due to the latest developments in the healthcare sector, the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare services are being improved. This investigation aims to shortlist the organizational hindrances that influence the adoption of Healthcare 4.0 technologies and model the mutual relationship between them using the DEMATEL methodology. In addition, this study offers a cause-effect relationship between the barriers and helps to identify the most important challenges to the adoption of Healthcare 4.0 technologies. By reviewing the literature and consulting experts in the case domain, 10 hindrances were identified. The findings of the study highlighted three causal factors namely ‘Lack of vision and commitment from the top management’, ‘Hierarchical structure’, and ‘Lack of skilled workforce’ as critical ones that have the significant causality intensity; whereas, ‘Lack of R&D facilities’ was found be the least significant barrier which belongs to the effect category. It may be noted that the causal factors need to be addressed by the top management of the healthcare organizations for the successful adoption of Health 4.0. Further, the elimination of the causal factors identified by this study would help in reducing the cost of the treatment and enhance the patients' experience. In addition, this research aims to guide managers/decision-makers of healthcare organizations to deduce policies for the adoption of the latest technologies in the case sector.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"29 1-2","pages":"186-195"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1002/mcda.1766","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48448323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Health Technology Assessment of medical devices. Overcoming the critical issues of current assessment","authors":"Salvatore Tallarico, Davide Aloini, Riccardo Dulmin, Simone Lazzini, Valeria Mininno, Luisa Pellegrini","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1764","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1764","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Medical devices are introduced in the market with an ever-increasing rate, with important benefits for the whole society's health. In the greatest majority of cases, although representing the entry point for devices, healthcare local institutions/hospitals do not receive any macro-level guidance from (inter)national authorities for their assessment. Hence, in the absence of a methodological support, local institutions/hospitals started to assess devices autonomously, building on Health Technology Assessment (HTA) tools based on Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), in order to take into-account the multifaceted aspects connected with devices. However, the strategies described so far in the scientific literature for implementing MCDA in local-based HTA of medical devices suffer from a harsh methodological weaknesses – that is, the use of bespoke criteria for the specific device to be assessed - that severely affect the evaluation of medical devices. Within this scenario, this work proposes a new tool based on peer-to-peer IF-TOPSIS, intended for micro-level assessment of medical devices with the main objective of overcoming the above-mentioned critical issues and provide local institutions/hospitals with a general tool. An example of application of this tool in the choice between three neurological devices is shown. Contributions are both theoretical and practical. Theoretically, while proposing a general MCDA tool for micro-level HTA, we answer the call for the identification of key methodological principles for the local assessment of medical devices. At the practical level, this tool is readily implementable and can be adapted to consider the local idiosyncratic characteristics of the context where decisions have to be made.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"29 1-2","pages":"150-172"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1002/mcda.1764","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43980836","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"COVID-19 critical success factors in Indian healthcare industry—A DEMATEL approach","authors":"Vidyadhar Gedam, Rakesh Raut, Zeeshan Inamdar, Balkrishna Narkhede, Swapnil Dharaskar, Vaibhav Narvane","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1763","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1763","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The prosed study aims to provide COVID-19 critical success factors (CSF) associated with pandemic circumstances in the Indian healthcare industry (HCI). The CSF was identified via expert team inputs and a detailed literature review. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method is used to determine the causal relationship between identified CSF. The methodology was supported by the case study of the Indian HCI. A total of 15 CSF in the Indian HCI during COVID-19 are identified and prioritized using the DEMATEL method. The findings indicate that the high-quality personal protective equipment (PPEs; LC8) and testing laboratories/facilities, centres, and kits (LC15) are the significant cause, and appropriate healthcare laws (LC13) are the least effect group. The study shows that policy and decision-makers need to emphasize on LC8 and LC15 CSF in the Indian HCI and act accordingly to win the battle against post-COVID-19 circumstance. The policy/decision-makers and healthcare administrations can identify the CSF and focus on that particular CSF. The identified CSF will help policy and decision-makers swiftly build up the HCI to cope with the future pandemic.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"29 1-2","pages":"135-149"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1002/mcda.1763","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78430423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Gustavo B. Alvarez, Rafael G. de Almeida, Cecilia T. Hernández, Patrícia A. P. de Sousa
{"title":"Some mathematical comments about the analytic hierarchy process: Part I – theoretical analysis","authors":"Gustavo B. Alvarez, Rafael G. de Almeida, Cecilia T. Hernández, Patrícia A. P. de Sousa","doi":"10.1002/mcda.1762","DOIUrl":"10.1002/mcda.1762","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a decision making method, which has as its greatest criticism the rank reversal effect. Here a new mathematical analysis of this method is performed, and three new results are highlighted. First, the method is formulated as a linear system of equations, where it is possible to assign a geometric interpretation, determine the number of possible solutions, and perform an sensitivity analysis based on the condition number of the matrix. Second, the causes of rank reversal can be encompassed by two mathematical aspects related to the properties of the matrix of AHP: high condition number and deficient rank. When the matrix is deficient rank, it is possible to obtain a condensed formulation of the AHP with a new full rank matrix. This guarantees greater stability to the method. Third, some mathematical results can be used as a robustness test for the matrix of AHP.</p>","PeriodicalId":45876,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis","volume":"28 5-6","pages":"296-310"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45880120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}