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Table 4 Opportunities and challenges

From: Case studies for implementing MCDA for tender and purchasing decisions in hospitals in Indonesia and Thailand

 

Strengths/opportunities

Challenges

Recommendations

Utility

Transparency

Adaptability to local priorities/needs

Participatory and multi-stakeholder approach

Consideration of trade-offs (price vs. quality + non-quality criteria)

Requires replacement of current process

Need for evidence to prove the MCDA effectiveness

Perception of complexity in implementation

Requires more time and work than price-only decisions

Create full transparency

Involve broadly throughout process

Support and reinforce new behaviour

Measure success

Methodology

Consistent/systematic decision approach

Process quality assurance

Flexibility (e.g., different value frameworks for different drug classes)

Pragmatic, user-oriented, and modular

Criteria selection, validation, and measurement; improve applicability for users

Criteria definitions need to be more precise

Ensure fit of criteria in evaluation setting

Detailed guidance on criteria and scoring

Data requirements

Adaptable to local data

Data retrieval and synthesis by criteria

Data interpretation

Detailed guidance on data requirements

Capacity/training requirements

Upskilling of evaluating personnel

Lack of training and knowledge

Need for continuous re-enforcement

Education on why

Training on how

Retrain

Broader societal impact

Criteria as requirements to be met by suppliers upskilling of suppliers

Threat perceived by local industry

Guidance for manufacturers/suppliers

Self-scoring tools

Feed-back to suppliers

Training for suppliers

Full transparency

  1. Analysis of strengths or opportunities versus challenges as observes in the pilot implementation projects in Thailand and Indonesia, following the model used by the FIFARMA MCDA taskforce (Latin American Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry) [20]. The third column (Recommendations; with grey background) exemplifies actions to realize the opportunities and to address the challenges