Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a useful tool in complex decision-making situations and has been used in medical fields to evaluate treatment options and drug selection. We aimed to provide valuable insights on the use of MCDA in health care through examining the research focus of existing studies, major fields, major applications, most productive authors and countries, and most common journals in the domain using a scientometric and bibliometric analysis.

Publications related to MCDA in health care were identified by searching the Web of Science Core Collection on 14 July 2021. Three bibliometric software programs (VOSviewer, Bibliometrix, and CiteSpace) were used to conduct the analysis.

A total of 410 publications were identified from 196 academic journals (average yearly growth rate of 32% from 1999 to 2021), with 23,637 co-cited references by 871 institutions from 70 countries or regions. The USA was the most productive country (n=80), while the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (n=16), Université de Montréal (n= 13), and Syreon Research Institute (n=12) were the most productive institutions. The biggest nodes in every cluster of author networks were Aos Alaa Zaidan, Mireille Goetghebeur, and Zoltan Kalo. The top journals in terms of number of articles (n=17) and citations (n=1,673) were Value in Health and the Journal of Medical Systems, respectively. The research hotspots mainly included the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), decision-making, health technology assessment, and healthcare waste management. In the recent literature there was more emphasis on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarities to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Big data, telemedicine, TOPSIS, and the fuzzy AHP, which are well-developed and important themes, may be the trends in future research.

This study provides a holistic picture of the MCDA-related literature published in health care. MCDA has a broad application in different topic areas and would be helpful for practitioners, researchers, and decision makers working in health care when faced with complex decisions. It can be argued that the door is still open for improving the role of MCDA in health care, both in its technologies and its application.