Evaluating Mechanical Ventilators Using Multi Criteria Decision Making Techniques

Abstract

Mechanical ventilator (MV) is used to help the patient breathe by delivering gas to the lungs at a certain rate using positive pressure. The complex evaluation of mechanical ventilator devices at present time is a very important and topical issue, due to the presence of many mechanical ventilator companies, as it seems that the process of evaluation and selection of ventilator equipment needs strong experience in this field. Our paper show that multi criteria decision making (MCDM) methods can be applied to comparing and evaluating some alternatives of mechanical ventilator devices. This study will determine new methodology to help the decision makers to choosing the best mechanical ventilator among the five alternatives based on eight criteria; Cost of the MV device; Maximum Inspiratory flow; Maximum Pressure; Tidal volume; PEEP; Weight of ventilator; Screen size and Internal battery time. This study used two techniques; TOPSIS technique and PROMETHEE II technique. Our paper used the same weights criteria in these two techniques. The weight for each criteria should be determined by the medical engineer expert and the decision makers. Choosing mechanical ventilator will affect the quality of the therapeutic and diagnostic processes, the way the treating doctor works, and also affect the patient's comfort. Because of these reasons, we designed a new methodology based on MCDM. This study will be an important basis for choosing the best mechanical ventilator, and will assist decision-makers such as medical engineers, ICU doctors, and users to evaluating and choosing the best ventilator based on several criteria.