A Rough Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Framework With Complex Linguistic Information for the Drug Selection Process in Medical Institutions

OBJECTIVES: With the implementation of China's National Centralized Drug Procurement policy, the scientific and rational selection of generic drugs has gained significant attention from health decision-makers (DMs). Moreover, the current guidelines for drug selection do not meet the multi-criteria requirements for procuring drugs in medical institutions. This research aims to propose a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) framework to facilitate the selection of centralized procurement varieties.

METHODS: Recognizing that experts naturally perform linguistic assessments when selecting drugs, we use the probabilistic linguistic term set (PLTS) to uniformly model various types of linguistic information. Considering the feasibility of obtaining criteria, a multi-dimensional evaluation criteria system containing health technology assessment (HTA) indicators and procurement factors is put forward to make the decision results more comprehensive and applicable. Subsequently, a modified MCDM decision mechanism incorporating the CRITIC (criteria importance through intercriteria correlation) with non-linear correlation coefficients, the MAHP (multiplicative analytic hierarchy process) method, and the DNMA (double normalization-based multiple aggregation) is implemented. The enhanced CRITIC technique is utilized for objective weight measurement. The MAHP is applied to determine the subjective weights. The DNMA method is integrated to analyze the performance of centralized procurement of medicines. Finally, we apply the proposed method to a batch of alliance centralized procurement case to examine the feasibility of the framework.

RESULTS: A modified MCDM decision mechanism for centralized procurement of drug selection is established. The robustness and effectiveness of the proposed methodology were demonstrated by sensitivity and comparative analyses of the empirical case data.

CONCLUSIONS: The multi-criteria framework has assisted healthcare decision makers in identifying and expressing their preferences in a reasonable manner. Furthermore, it provides a feasible value assessment pattern for drug selection.