Dynamic Analytic Hierarchy Process: a new approach to technology assessment to support healthcare processes

The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex decisions, based on mathematics and psychology. In particular, AHP is used around the world in a wide variety of decision situations decomposing the relative decision problem into a hierarchy of more easily-comprehended sub-problems, each of which can be analyzed independently. Our thesis work aims to provide a dynamic view of the AHP to overcome the static nature of the methodology, taking into account the evaluations associated with criteria and alternatives as a function of time and considering internal dependence loop. First, we have defined the decision problem and decomposed hierarchically criteria and sub-criteria, and later, we have developed several System Dynamics models. Our case study concerned with evaluating a new health technology for the assay of thyroglobulin in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer. Indeed, the dynamic AHP provides a dynamic image of the system where the best decision can be different compared to all decisions obtained at different times.