Middle Eastern Journal of Disability Studies

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Ijabi E, Karimloo M, Rahgozar M, Tavakoli M. Compare and Prioritize Methods for Treatment of Heart Disease Using an Improved TOPSIS Technique. MEJDS 2015; 4 (4) :13-24
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-396-en.html

Objective: This paper aims to evaluate and select the optima method for treatment of heart diseases among the five methods including chemotherapy (anti-clotting medications), bypass (open heart surgery), angioplasty (inserting balloon), and inserting heart battery. These methods are different in terms of a number of criteria including treatment duration, pace maker, ICD, severity of symptoms, cost, need for rest and absence from work, patients proclivity and required facilities for their implementation. This paper aims to evaluate and choose the best method of treatment among these five methods depending on the above mentioned criteria by using TOPSIS multi-criteria decision making technique.

Methods & Materials: Thirty experts considered the five treatment methods based on six criteria and used a bipolar scale of 1 to 9 in order to evaluate each method based on each criterion. Then, after forming a decision-making matrix, the five methods were prioritized and the best was chosen through a six-stage process of the improved TOPSIS.

Results: The method of chemotherapy (anti-clotting medications) ranked as the first priority with proximity coefficient of 0.659797 and hence could be offered to the patients as the most favorable treatment. Other methods were prioritized as follows: angioplasty with proximity coefficient of 0.654508, ICD with proximity coefficient of 0.650213, Pace Maker with proximity coefficient of 0.52096 and bypass with proximity coefficient of 0.293259.  

Conclusion: According to the study findings, as chemotherapy (anti-clotting medications) is close to positive criteria and far from negative criteria was selected to be the most suitable method of treatment of heart disease.