Selecting medical hardware using pairwise comparisons: A patient's perspective of cochlear implant device selection

Selecting medical hardware can be a difficult and permanent decision for patients that they are often unprepared for. The authors explore the use of pairwise comparison techniques to better inform medical decision making in an application of choosing between three major cochlear implant manufacturers. This paper appears to be the first study to apply a pairwise comparison decision making approach for cochlear implant device selection. Also, unlike many medical decision making studies that are developed by the healthcare professional, this model and analysis was conducted entirely by the patient for the purpose of making the real-world decision of a device. It therefore demonstrates the use of sophisticated decision analysis tools to inform complex patient-based medical decision making. The hierarchical model was built and used for the patient to make a device selection with low values of inconsistency.