To illustrate the advantages of the proposed model, we compared the conventional DEMATEL and fuzzy DEMATEL methods. The conventional DEMATEL does not consider the problem of information uncertainty at all, and converting linguistic variables into a crisp value. The general fuzzy DEMATEL reflects the uncertainty of experts‘ evaluation environment, but ignores the reliability of the assessment. The influential weights obtained by these three methods are different, and the ranking results are inconsistent.

Comparison of the three DEMATEL methods.

Technology Overview
This paper explores the development trends of the healthcare in industry in Taiwan. We propose a modified Z-DEMATEL technique. Our model constructs the mutual influential relationship and priority of healthcare projects. The top two important healthcare projects are IoT and telemedicine.

Applications & Benefits
This study identifies and compares eight MHDTs in the healthcare industry in Taiwan to support decision-makers and practitioners in formulating the optimal strategy for future development. The proposed model determines the mutual influential relationships and prioritizes the eight MHDTs. The INRM can identify which MHDTs are causal affecting healthcare development. The modified Z-DEMATEL considers the uncertainty of the evaluation environment and the confidence of the experts when generating a set of criteria influence weights.

Abstract：
The increased awareness of the importance of global healthcare which has formed an inseparable relationship with the quality of human life has led researchers to pay attention to trends in the development of the healthcare industry. This study identifies eight potential development trends designed to provide the healthcare industry with appropriate development strategy recommendations. The modified Z-numbers decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (called the modified Z-DEMATEL) technique is adapted to construct the mutual influential relationships and prioritize these trends. The Z-number method optimizes the conventional fuzzy numbers and increases the reliability of expert evaluations to reflect the confidence of the evaluation environment under uncertainty. The modified Z-DEMATEL provides a complete linguistic evaluation and its membership functions, and generates a set of influence weights of the criteria. Real healthcare development trends in Taiwan are taken as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The results show that the internet of things and telemedicine are important future trends in Taiwan. This paper provides useful and reliable management suggestions to help the healthcare industry promote innovative technologies.

A group decision-making approach for exploring trends in the development of the healthcare industry in Taiwan
Author：Wan-Chi Jackie Hsu, James J.H. Liou, Huai-Wei Lo
Year：2021
Source publication：Decision Support Systems Volume 141, February 2021, 113447
Subfield Highest percentage：99%    Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)   #4/376

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923620302025