Table 1 MCDA steps

1

The first step is the development of relevant criteria. The criteria should be clearly defined and must relate to the overall purpose of the decision process. The objective in the development of criteria is to include all considerations relevant to the decision that has to be made and to provide sufficient clarity to ensure consistency in the translation of information about the alternatives into ratings.

2

The second step is the identification of the possible alternatives. In this case, the alternatives are the most common physiotherapy services. Each alternative [or in this case set of services] must be accompanied by the information required to assess it on the basis of the established criteria.

3

The third step is the formal evaluation of each possible alternative. This is done by rating each alternative on each criterion and calculating a composite score. Because the same criteria are used with all alternatives, the scores are comparable across all alternatives.

4

The final step is the formulation of recommendations. First, each composite score is validated to ensure that no process errors took place. Once that is done, each alternative can be ranked in relation to all others. Funding recommendations are then based on this ranking.