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Voting and priorities in health care decision making, portrayed through a group decision support system, using analytic hierarchy process

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Abstract

Within the health care industry many decision making approaches and tools are used. This paper explores a new tool, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which permits both subjective and objective information to be considered in a decision. AHP has tremendous potential to solve both traditional and non-traditional health care problems. Its strength as a decision-making tool is its ability to combine both subjective and objective data. Application of AHP is discussed within the context of a Group Decision Support System (GDSS) model developed by Hatcher.30 The model is reviewed in limited detail, and readers are referred to the original article that defined and discussed the uniqueness and level of sophistication of GDSS applications in the health care industry. Health and medical delivery problems are discussed to highlight AHP requirements and the complexity of AHP applications. Health care applications are unique in that they lend themselves ideally to the use of computer data, image, voice, text, and multimedia concepts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. From the Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences, The Sid Craig School of Business, California State University, 93740-0007, Fresno, CA

    Myron Hatcher

  2. Member of Network for Health Monitoring, Evaluation and Futures Studies, Monitoring, Evaluation and Projection Methodology Unit, Division of Epidemiological Surveillance, and Health Situation and Trend Assessment, World Health Organization, Geneva

    Myron Hatcher

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Hatcher, M. Voting and priorities in health care decision making, portrayed through a group decision support system, using analytic hierarchy process. J Med Syst 18, 267–288 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00996606

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