First of Two Reports Published in Value in Health
Princeton, NJ—January 26, 2016—The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (
ISPOR) published a new Task Force Report, “
Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis for Health Care Decision Making—An Introduction: Report 1 of the ISPOR MCDA Emerging Good Practices Task Force,” in the January/February 2016 issue of
Value in Health (Volume 19, Issue 1).
Health care decisions are complex and can require the assessment of multiple, often conflicting, objectives. As a result, decision makers—whether they are individuals or committees—often have difficulty processing and systematically evaluating relevant information that could inform those decisions.
A set of techniques known under the collective heading
multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA), can be useful to evaluate multiple variables (i.e., criteria) and improve the quality of decision making. MCDA has been widely used in other sectors and is now being increasingly applied in health care. However, while there are many MCDA methods available, little guidance exists for how to choose the right technique for a particular problem. To fill this knowledge gap, ISPOR established its
Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis in Health Care Decision Making Emerging Good Practices Task Force in 2014.
This first MCDA Task Force Report provides readers with an introduction that: 1) defines MCDA, 2) offers examples of its use in different kinds of health care decision making, 3) provides an overview of the principal methods of MCDA, and 4) describes the key steps involved.
A second Task Force Report is in development and is scheduled for publication in the March/April 2016 issue of
Value in Health. Report 2 will build on the first report by providing recommendations on Emerging Good Practices for conducting MCDA.
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