A Clinical Decision Support System for the Treatment of COVID-19 with Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Techniques (Preprint)

Abstract

BACKGROUND The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported in December 2019. Until now, many drugs and methods have been used in the treatment of the disease. However, no effective treatment option has been found and only case-based successes have been achieved so far. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the COVID-19 treatment options using multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) techniques. METHODS In this study, we evaluated the available COVID-19 treatment options by MCDM techniques, namely fuzzy PROMETHEE and VIKOR. This technique is based on the evaluation and comparison of complex and multiple criteria to evaluate the most appropriate alternative. We evaluated current treatment options including favipiravir (FPV), lopinavir/ritonavir, hydroxychloroquine, interleukin-1 blocker, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), and plasma exchange. The criteria used for the analysis include side effects, method of administration of the drug, cost, turnover of plasma, level of fever, age, pregnancy, and kidney function. RESULTS The results showed that plasma exchange was the most preferred alternative, followed by FPV and IVIG, while hydroxychloroquine was the least favorable one. New alternatives could be considered once they are available, and weights could be assigned based on the opinions of the decision makers (physicians/clinicians). CONCLUSIONS We showed the applicability of the MCDM techniques in informing decision makers in choosing the right treatment technique for the management of COVID-19.

Development of a Multi-Criteria Model for Sustainable Reorganization of a Healthcare System in an Emergency Situation Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Nardo et al [19] showed the application of multi-criteria decision analysis to determine weights for eleven criteria in order to prioritize COVID-19 non-critical patients for admission to hospital in healthcare settings with limited resources. Yildirim et al [20] evaluated the available COVID-19 treatment options in hospitals. For the evaluation, they used a hybrid methodology based on the application of two well-known multi-criteria tools: (1) Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE) and (2) Vlsehriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) method.…”

“…In general, there are only a few articles in the literature that consider the application of hybrid multi-criteria techniques for the evaluation of hospital capacities in crisis situations [14,15,21]. Despite the fact that decision making under the conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic and crisis situations in general is accompanied by a greater or lesser number of uncertainties, there are only a few studies that apply fuzzy numbers to treat uncertainties [20]. Additionally, the analysis of the literature shows that there is no study that considers the possibility of including spa centers in healthcare systems in order to reduce the pressure on primary hospital capacities under the conditions of COVID-19 pandemic.…”