Analytic Hierarchy Process Approach for Healthcare Educational Media Selection: Additive Manufacturing Inspired Study

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is well-known for its ability to construct 3D objects by successively depositing material in layers. Although AM has been recently widespread for industrial application, an application in an educational sector is still relatively limited. Inspired by AM capability, we aim to evaluate healthcare educational media from using AM technology in this study. Initially, healthcare model is fabricated using 3D printer. Then, given multiple, conflicting criteria based on education, cost, appearance, and realism; the printed model is compared against gross anatomy and textbook alternatives using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. Analyzed results collected from medical students show that 3D printed healthcare model is promising in terms of appearance criterion. In addition, whereas gross anatomy is superior in terms of education and realism criteria, textbook is preferred when cost criterion is desired. The overall analysis suggests that 3D printed model can be used together with gross anatomy and textbook for healthcare education.