Please insert Table 1 about here
The main drawback of using a lot of factors is that all groups of
factors and all factors do not have equal impact on the problem under
consideration. The effect of certain factors has a more significant
impact on surgeons’ activities. That is the reason for the application
of the group and factor ranking method, and the involvement of more
experts in decision-making.
It is recommended to use the multi-criteria analysis method to determine
the key factors of a complex problem. Based on the method presented in
the aforementioned research,35 for simpler
understanding of the decision-making process and more accurate ranking
results, the following factors are used: fuzzy numbers, analytic
hierarchy process, and group decision-making.
The applied group fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) consists of
the following steps: (1) identifying the experts and assigning
significance describing their influence on the final decision based on
the level of experience; (2) creation of hierarchical structure of
factors and groups of factors; (3) pairwise comparison groups and
individual factors based on the proposed hierarchical structure using
fuzzy numbers; (4) determining the aggregate patterns based on the
comparison of individual experts and their roles describing their
influence on the final decision; (5) determining fuzzy significance for
groups of factors and individual factors based on the obtained aggregate
fuzzy patterns; (6) defuzzification (determination of crisp numbers
based on fuzzy numbers), and ranking based on the obtained results.
Ranking determines the significance of individual factors and groups of
factors for the purpose of using them in further analyses.