OBJECTIVES:  Our study aimed to analyze the use of the different types of criteria in multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) models that are being used in the decision-making process in healthcare while focusing on the potential usability in a Central and Eastern European (CEE) setting. METHODS:  We reviewed scientific publications and official documents of existing or proposed MCDA models. We identified the criteria and assigned them into nine groups: Economics, Disease description, Intervention description, Health benefits and outcomes, Feasibility, Prevalence, Evidence quality, Social and ethical factors and Other criteria. Taking into account the results of a HTA Implementation Roadmap in Central and Eastern European Countries we aimed to select the most important criteria. Special focus was given to three sources: an MCDA that was introduced for new hospital technologies in Hungary, a published MCDA framework for orphan drugs in Poland and the recently adopted regulation on the development of a National List of Essential Medicines in Ukraine. RESULTS:  We looked at MCDAs which are aimed to be used for Reimbursement or Investment Decisions (86%) and for Authorization Decisions (14%). Based on our research the four most common criteria mentioned in MCDAs used to support reimbursement decisions outside the CEE region were: Health benefits and outcomes (88%), Economics (80%), Social and ethical factors (76%) and Disease description (68%). Of the MCDA frameworks from CEE countries we focused on, all three considered the Health benefits and outcomes, Disease description, Economics, Social and ethical factors and Evidence. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our findings we suggest that the main clusters of criteria that can be the core of Central and Eastern European MCDA models are Health benefits and outcomes, Economics, Social and ethical factors and Disease description, acknowledging that MCDA models should always be adapted to the decision problem and the local settings.