Analyse des criteres de choix des materiels et technologies a l'hopital

Abstract Decision-making in hospital, when a biomedical instrumentation investment has to be decided, is not simple because of the large amount of criteria which should be considered. To show the most important criteria in decision-making, their respective weight and their interdependencies, we used multi-dimensional analysis methods. A quasi-exhaustive list of criteria has been constructed and sent to all the heads of medical departments, the directors and the clinical engineers of the French university hospitals, in order to obtain their appreciation of the influence of these criteria in their own decision-making experience. The application of factorial analysis methods to the answers gives two main results. There is no characteristic behaviour of professional groups, such as engineers, directors, surgeons, radiologist, etc.… A list of 21 criteria, which are the most influential in decision-making, can be identified. This result will be emphasized in order to develop a tool which allows one to measure the adequacy of a biomedical instrument that shows a clinical need.