Shared decision-making – transferring research into practice: The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

ObjectiveTo illustrate how the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) can be used to promote shared decision-making and enhance clinician–patient communication.MethodsTutorial review.ResultsThe AHP promotes shared decision-making by creating a framework that is used to define the decision, summarize the information available, prioritize information needs, elicit preferences and values, and foster meaningful communication among decision stakeholders.ConclusionsThe AHP and related multi-criteria methods have the potential for improving the quality of clinical decisions and overcoming current barriers to implementing shared decision-making in busy clinical settings. Further research is needed to determine the best way to implement these tools and to determine their effectiveness.Practice implicationsMany clinical decisions involve preference-based trade-offs between competing risks and benefits. The AHP is a well-developed method that provides a practical approach for improving patient–provider communication, clinical decision-making, and the quality of patient care in these situations.