Improving Quality of Healthcare througThe Selection of Right Technology: An Expert System Approach for a Public Sector Hospital

Purpose. The role of technology in health care is significant due to the accuracy of the output desired to provide the quality health care. It is noted that the technology related decisions are made by the people having little awareness regarding the issue of right technology selection and its possible impact on the quality of health care. The condition is not favourable particularly in developing countries public sector hospitals where it is quite common to select the wrong alternative or the underutilization of the selected technology. The purpose of this study is not only to highlight the importance of the technology selection issues in health care system but also to develop practical solutions to address the challenges.
Approach. The research systematically highlighted the importance of technology selection in providing quality health care and an Expert System for the selection of Auto haematology analyser was developed and applied, to select the best system in a public sector hospital. The developed system uses the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) based Expert Choice® Shell which takes the preferences of the user to arrive at an optimal solution.
Findings. A framework for the selection of medical equipment was developed which surfaced many parameters. The identified parameters were not the part of decision making and decision without considering these parameters could end up with a wrong or underutilized technology alternative. The developed expert system prioritized all the alternatives based on the user requirements which could provide a great help for decision makers particularly when number of alternatives increase.
Originality/Value: The research highlights the critical importance of the health care technology selection process and through a case study points out the limitation of the current procedures. An expert system was developed and applied in a public sector hospital which can be modified for other technology selection processes. The research will provide more refined methods of technology selection process to ensure true utilization of the investments and high quality of the health care to its customers.
Note: The analysis used in the paper is a sample from a large data analysis for illustration purpose.

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Expert System, Healthcare, Quality, Technology Selection