Transforming medical equipment management in digital public health: a decision-making model for medical equipment replacement

Luying Huang; Wenqian Lv; Qingming Huang; Haikang Zhang; Siyuan Jin; Tong Chen; Bing Shen

doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1239795

Transforming medical equipment management in digital public health: a decision-making model for medical equipment replacement

Front Med (Lausanne). 2024 Jan 3:10:1239795. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1239795. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Luying Huang¹, Wenqian Lv², Qingming Huang^{1

3}, Haikang Zhang¹, Siyuan Jin², Tong Chen², Bing Shen^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Health Science and Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
² Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai, China.
³ School of Medical Imaging, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital of Tongji University, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Introduction: In the rapidly evolving field of digital public health, effective management of medical equipment is critical to maintaining high standards of healthcare service levels and operational efficiency. However, current decisions to replace large medical equipment are often based on subjective judgments rather than objective analyses and lack a standardized approach. This study proposes a multi-criteria decision-making model that aims to simplify and enhance the medical equipment replacement process.

Methods: The researchers developed a multi-criteria decision-making model specifically for the replacement of medical equipment. The model establishes a system of indicators for prioritizing and evaluating the replacement of large medical equipment, utilizing game theory to assign appropriate weights, which uniquely combines the weights of the COWA and PCA method. In addition, which uses the GRA method in combination with the TOPSIS method for a more comprehensive decision-making model.

Results: The study validates the model by using the MRI equipment of a tertiary hospital as an example. The results of the study show that the model is effective in prioritizing the most optimal updates to the equipment. Significantly, the model shown a higher level of differentiation compared to the GRA and TOPSIS methods alone.

Discussion: The present study shows that the multi-criteria decision-making model presented provides a powerful and accurate tool for optimizing decisions related to the replacement of large medical equipment. By solving the key challenges in this area as well as giving a solid basis for decision making, the model makes significant progress toward the field of management of medical equipment.

Keywords: MCDM; decision-making; game theory; hospital management; medical equipment.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Management Project of Shanghai Hospital Development Center (2020SKMR-29), the Medical-Industrial Crossover Project of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (10-21-302-405, 10-22-308-514), and the Health Economic Management Research Project of China Health Economics Association Health (CHEA2122040102).