Assessing the suitability of smart technology applications for e-health using a judgment-decomposition analytic hierarchy process approach

Smart technologies have been extensively applied to e-health. However, whether existing smart technology applications for e-health are sustainable is questionable. To assess the sustainability of a smart technology application for e-health, this study proposes the judgment-decomposition analytic hierarchy process (JD-AHP) approach. In the proposed JD-AHP approach, a decision-maker’s judgment matrix is decomposed into several subjudgment matrices that are more consistent than the judgment matrix and that represent diversified viewpoints for assessing the sustainability of a smart technology application for e-health. Then, the priorities of factors critical to sustainability are derived from the subjudgment matrices by optimizing a mixed-integer nonlinear programming model. The JD-AHP approach was applied to assess the sustainabilities of 10 smart technology applications for e-health. According to the evaluation results, smart clothes had the least sustainability, whereas smart glasses and smart wheelchair had uncertain sustainabilities.