Introduction to MACBETH methods and software in multi-criteria decision analysis

Multi-criteria decision analysis has been widely used in health decision making. Measuring attractiveness by a categorical based evaluation technique (MACBETH) is a multi-criteria decision analysis approach. Its key distinction from other value-measurement methods is that MACBETH uses qualitative judgments of differences in attractiveness in order to generate value scores for the options. The MACBETH analysis process can be implemented by the M-MACBETH software, which is capable of structuring the value trees, developing the value functions, scoring each criterion of alternatives, assigning weights to criteria, consistency testing and sensitivity analysis. This article mainly introduces the basic principle of MACBETH and demonstrates how to use M-MACBETH software to realize multi-criteria decision analysis.