title: Multi-criteria decision making--an approach to setting priorities in health care.
abstract: The objective of this paper is to present a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approach to support public health decision making that takes into consideration the fuzziness of the decision goals and the behavioural aspect of the decision maker. The approach is used to analyse the process of health technology procurement in a University Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The method, known as TODIM, relies on evaluating alternatives with a set of decision criteria assessed using an ordinal scale. Fuzziness in generating criteria scores and weights or conflicts caused by dealing with different viewpoints of a group of decision makers (DMs) are solved using fuzzy set aggregation rules. The results suggested that MCDM models, incorporating fuzzy set approaches, should form a set of tools for public health decision making analysis, particularly when there are polarized opinions and conflicting objectives from the DM group.
authors.affiliation: Programa de Engenharia Biomédica - COPPE/UFRJ, Cidade Universitária - Ilha do Fundão, P.O. Box 68510, 21945-970 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil. flavio@peb.ufrj.br
authors.forename: F F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Nobre
authors.forename: L T
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Trotta
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Gomes
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D003657:Decision Making; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D003906:Developing Countries; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D006292:Health Priorities / Q000191:economics*; D006801:Humans; D013677:Medical Laboratory Science / Q000191:economics; D018803:Models, Economic; D013675:Technology, High-Cost / Q000191:economics*