Multi-Criteria Decision Making for Medical Device Development

Abstract

The development of a new product is a complicated multi-stakeholder process with a significant risk of failure. This is particularly true in the medical device sector, where there are strict therapeutic, psychological, and normative constraints. This article presents a multi-criteria decision making process called “Define, Prioritize, Measure, and Aggregate” (DPMA). DPMA is designed to help engineering managers in decision making during the development process of new medical devices. The model is based on two sets of criteria linked to business and customer satisfaction. These criteria are weighted using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and group decision making (GDM) process. The performance of a medical device is measured according to each criterion. Furthermore, the final score of GO/NO GO alternatives are calculated with the simple additive weighting (SAW) method. A case study for the development of a new kind of femoral implant is presented to demonstrate the implementation of the DPMA process. This study shows that the application of the DPMA process during the design of a 3D printed femoral prosthesis provided engineering managers the key elements and green light to go ahead with the development of this medical device.

Keywords:

• Medical device
• new product development
• design parameter
• innovation
• decision making
• analytic hierarchy process

EMJ Focus Areas:

• Program & Project Management
• Systems Engineering

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding of Project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000022 - SciTech – Science and Technology for Competitive and Sustainable Industries, co-financed by “Programa Operacional Regional do Norte” (NORTE2020), through “Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional” (FEDER).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional [NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000022].

Notes on contributors

Houssem Barkaoui

Houssem Barkaoui, Ph.D, graduated from National Engineering School of Tunis (Tunisia) and received a PhD in industrial engineering from INSA Lyon (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Lyon, France). He currently works on decision support issues, using tools for simulation, optimization, multi-criteria analysis, etc., specialized in healthcare supply chain, logistics problems, and risk analysis.

Helmi Ben Rejeb

Helmi Ben Rejeb, Ph.D, is currently an assistant professor in industrial engineering at Université Grenoble Alpes (France). He previously was an assistant professor at the department of industrial engineering in the National Engineering School of Tunis (ENIT), University of Tunis El Manar (Tunisia). He received a PhD in Industrial Systems Engineering from the University of Lorraine, France and an engineering diploma from ENIT. His primary research interests include the study of the innovation processes, users’ needs analysis, sustainability issues in design and design driven innovation.

Abdelwahed Barkaoui

Abdelwahed Barkaoui, Ph.D, is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at International University of Rabat. He obtained his University habilitation from university of Tunis El Manar-(Tunisia) and his PhD from university of Orleans (France). He received an M.S. in mechanics from the INSA Lyon and an engineering degree in electromechanical from National Engineering School of Sfax (ENIS, Tunisia). Currently, he is associate professor of Mechanical Engineering and assistant director of LERMA laboratory at the International University of Rabat (Renewable Energies and Advanced Materials Lab, Morroco). His research mainly concerns problems in biomechanics, mechanobiology, and biomedical engineering.

João Manuel R.S. Tavares

João Manuel R.S. Tavares, Ph.D, has a B.S Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Porto. He obtained the M.S and PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering also from the University of Porto. He got the Habilitation in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Porto in 2015. Since 2001, he is senior researcher and project coordinator at the Institute of Science and Innovation in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. Currently, he is an associate professor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto. He has been (co-)chair of several scientific national and international conferences and workshops, (co-)chief-editor of scientific international journals, co-guest-editor of special issues of scientific international journals and (co-)author than more of 350 scientific publications, including the co-editing of various scientific books.