Development of an integrated ANP muldimensional decision model to assess health technologies

With health expenditures taking a growing share of gross domestic products, governments have recognized the importance of better assessing new health technologies. Policy makers, hospital administrators and other decision makers who need reliable information to reduce the uncertainty around the adoption of these technologies have turned to health technology assessment (HTA) bodies for information and advice on how to better manage, replace and exploit technologies to their full potential, and thereby ensure the adoption and diffusion of more cost-effective technologies. Health care is a highly innovative field. The past few decades have been characterized by rapid technological advances in the health care sector. Treatment has become more technology-intensive and expensive than ever before, and the introduction of new medical technologies has been regarded as a main cause of rising health-care expenditures. Contrary to other sectors of our economy where technology has often been associated with reduced costs, in the health sector technology is usually not perceived that way. As a result, health technology has come under scrutiny. Performance and cost considerations have been given more and more attention, and health technology assessment (HTA) has increasingly been perceived as a necessary function in efforts to achieve a more efficient health care system. The principal aim of the work was to verify the effectiveness of the application of the well-known multicriterion decision-making Analytic Network Process technique (A.N.P.), to the assessment process of the health technologies.