Application of multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for the selection of pharmacological treatments / Aplicação da análise de decisão baseada em múltiplos critérios para seleção de tratamentos farmacológicos

Abstract

Introduction: Health Technology Assessment (HTA) is a tool that assists in the management of health systems, in which economic assessments are frequently applied. It is possible that the use of multicriteria analysis (MCDA) increases the quality of decisions. Objective: Identify the potentialities of the application of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) in studies that used this type of method for the selection of treatments. Methods: An integrative review was executed based on articles where MCDA methods had been applied for the selection of treatments between February and April 2017 in the following databases: Pubmed (MEDLINE), Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), Embase, Science Direct, Scopus, Web of Science and Wiley Online Library. Results: Eighteen studies published between 1998 and 2017 in which different MCDA techniques were applied were selected. Growth in the number of published studies was observed, showing increasing interest in the use of this type of method in health decision making. Conclusion: MCDA may guide more adequate decisions compared to the traditional Health Technology Assessment (HTA) methods and has the potential to help in the selection of treatments and the construction of medicines' lists.