A multicriteria decision analysis of augmentative treatment of upper limbs in persons with tetraplegia

Hummel, Marjan J.M. and Snoek, Govert J. and Til van, Janine A. and Rossum van, Wouter and IJzerman, Maarten J. (2005) A multicriteria decision analysis of augmentative treatment of upper limbs in persons with tetraplegia. Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, 42 (5). pp. 635-644. ISSN 0748-7711

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Abstract:	This study supported the evaluation by a rehabilitation team of the performance of two treatment options that improve the arm-hand function in subjects with sixth cervical vertebra (C6) level Motor Group 2 tetraplegia. The analytic hierarchy process, a technique for multicriteria decision analysis, was used by a rehabilitation team and potential recipients to quantitatively compare a new technology, Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES), with conventional surgery. Perform-ance was measured by functional improvement, treatment load, risks, user-friendliness, and social outcomes. Functional improvement after FES was considered better than that after conventional surgery. However, the rehabilitation team's overall rating for conventional surgery was slightly higher than that for FES (57% vs 44%). Compared with the rehabilitation team, potential recipients gave greater weight to burden of treatment and less weight to functional improvement. This study shows that evaluation of new technology must be more comprehensive than the evaluation of functional improvement alone, and that patient preferences may differ from those of the rehabilitation team.
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2005 United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Faculty:	Management and Governance (SMG)
Research Group:	Health Technology & Services Research (HTSR)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/71400
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