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In the context of the progressive movement towards patientcentred care, patient-specific decision support is an important focus of interest. Many diagnostic and treatment patient decision aids (PDAs) are now available to help patients make informed choice decisions. An increasing number of these are software-based, with some available online. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a potentially useful technique on which to base a software-assisted PDA, especially when the decision is complex - as is the case in choosing the best treatment for non-small cell lung cancer – but it has so far been relatively little exploited in this area. The use of any from a number of existing MCDA-based software applications in the development and delivery of a MCDA-based interactive PDA can be an effective way of achieving “best-practice” or normative standards of decision making, such as 1) a well-constructed set of decision criteria or 2) logically consistent patient preferences. However, it also involves the use of resources such as the time and cognitive effort involved in decision-making. The comparative evaluation of alternative MCDA-based software applications in developing and delivering a PDA therefore involves trade-offs between decision effectiveness and decision resource criteria moving from the normative to the prescriptive. MCDA is an ideal tool for this meta-evaluation task as well as for the adoption decision itself.

To analyse, as proof of concept, the use of MCDA for the development, implementation and evaluation of interactive PDAs in routine clinical practice.

1. To assess the use with clinicians in the …