Methodology to Support the Triage of Suspected COVID-19 Patients in Resource-Limited Circumstances

COVID-19 pandemic has put health systems worldwide under pressure. Thus, establish a triage protocol to support the allocation of resources is important to deal with this public health crisis. In this paper, a structured methodology to support the triage of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients has been proposed, based on the utilitarian principle. A decision model has been proposed for evaluating three treatment alternatives: intensive care, hospital stay and home isolation. The model is developed according to multi-attribute utility theory and considers two criteria: the life of the patient and the overall cost to the health system. A screening protocol is proposed to support the use of the decision model, and a method is presented for calculating the probability of which of three treatment is the best one. The proposed methodology was implemented in an information and decision system. The originality of this study is using of the multi-attribute utility theory to support the triage of suspected COVID-19 and implement the decision model in an information and decision system.

Using the FITradeoff Method for Solving a Truck Acquisition Problem at a Midsize Carrier

The study demonstrates the flexible functioning of the FITradeoff method that integrates the Holistic Evaluation with the Elicitation by Decomposition. For that purpose, the new features of the FITradeoff method in which integrates the two paradigms of preference modeling have been explored to solve a real multi-criteria decision problem. In this paper, a truck acquisition problem, at a midsize carrier faced with an uncertain and turbulent scenario due to the Coronavirus pandemic, was solved using the FITradeoff method. In this problem, seven criteria were considered to represent the Decision-Maker objectives. Also, six trucks (alternatives) have been examined by the Decision-Maker (Financial Director). The FITradeoff DSS supported the company as to obtain, through the combination of Holistic Evaluation and Elicitation by Decomposition, a ranking of all the trucks based on the preferences expressed during the decision process to ensure lower costs and higher profits in the long run, also guaranteeing a quicker (more efficient) resolution of the problem. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.