Shabnam Razeghian Jahromi

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.

Technometrics Study Using DEA on Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs)

The Toyota Prius was first introduced in 1997 and since then over 150 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) have been brought to the automobile market around the world. This was spurred by a major interest in the future of vehicles using ‘alternative fuel’ for addressing environmental and fuel dependency concerns. This study evaluates and compares the technological advancement observed in different HEV market segments over the past 15 years. The results indicate that the introduction of a wide range of midsize HEVs is posing a threat to the two-seaters and compact HEV segments while an SUV segment shows a fast adoption with a significant performance improvement. The rates of change for each segment are also provided to give insights into the estimation of the future performance levels for new product development target setting purposes.