OBJECTIVES: Treatment options for patients with hepatitis C have made tremendous progress in the last 5 years. Innovative  antiviral-therapies promise a huge reduction of burden of disease and side-effects accompanied by an increase of patient's benefit. It is unclear, however, what properties generate the highest benefit for patients. METHODS: A systematic literature search was conducted to identify patient-relevant outcomes . Within N=14 semi-structured interviews the decision model was generated. Eight patient relevant characteristics were identified and described by three or six levels. For the discrete choice experiment, an experimental design (3*3+5*6) was generated using Ngene-Software. The design consisted 72 choices, which were divided into 6 blocks. The survey was conducted in august 2014 with computer-assisted personal interviews. RESULTS: N=561 hepatitis C-patients (58,1% male) within different treatment states participated. The preference analysis (random parameter logit estimation (with 95%CI)) showed a predominance for the attribute "sustained virological response 6 month after end of treatment"(coef.:1,108). A split second rank is occupied by the possible side effects "anemia"(coef.:0.396) and "rash"(coef.:0.372). The attributes that describe the administration of the treatment "number of interferon injections" (coef.:0.224) and "duration of treatment"(coef.:0.183) share the third place. The attributes "fatigue/exhaustion"(coef.:0.088) and "nausea/diarrhea"(coef.:0.067) follow. Within the treatment decision of hepatitis C-patients the attribute "headache"(coef.:0.036) was not taken into account, as reflected by the lack of significance. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the essential decision criteria for an optimal antiviral therapy of hepatitis C from the Hep C patients’ view were obtained by using a DCE. Thereby SVR is ranked highest against all patient relevant side effects and mode of administration characteristics. In the context of this study it could be demonstrated that with the help of the DCE patient-relevant properties can be weighted in terms of possible treatment options. The DCE stands out by a high degree of realism and good handling for the patient.