A Hybrid Multi-Criteria Approach to the Vendor Selection Problem for Sensor-Based Medical Devices

Sensors for health are a dynamic technology and sensor-based medical devices (SMD) are becoming an important part of health monitoring systems in healthcare centers and ambulatory care. The rapid growth in the number, diversity and costs of medical devices and Internet of Things (IoT) healthcare platforms imposes a challenge for healthcare managers: making a rational choice of SMD vendor from a set of potential SMD vendors. The aim of this paper is to develop a hybrid approach that combines a performance evaluation model and a multi-objective model for the SMD vendor selection problem. For determining the criteria weights in the performance evaluation model, an original version of the best worst method (BWM) is applied, which we call the flexible best worst method (FBWM). The multi-objective model has two objective functions; one is to maximize the SMD performance and the other is to minimize the SMD cost. A case study for the application of the hybrid approach for SMD procurement in a healthcare center is analyzed. The hybrid approach can support healthcare decision makers in their SMD procurement decisions.