Findings from the present study may assist health policy makers in their effort to strengthen the health system and set priorities. Of course, the list of criteria (“age”, “type of disease”, “health improvement after treatment”, “cost of treatment” and “healthy lifestyle”) is not exhaustive but indicative. The integration of public preferences into health policy decision making processes requires a systematic, reliable and effective strategy of public participation. The contribution of citizens to health policy decision making should be official and continuing: from planning to evaluation of the health services and programs. It should be noted that public preferences is rather complementary than conflicted to evidence based data, since they are based on them and do not apply to every aspect and every area or activity of the healthcare system. For instance, the criterion of “type of disease” may be useful to set priorities in universal screening for non-communicable diseases (e.g. cancer and cardiovascular disease instead of multiple sclerosis) for the general population but perhaps it is not suitable in setting priorities in innovative pharmaceutical therapies and health technology assessment procedures. Thus, specific criteria and strategies should be implemented in the different areas of health policy decision making. Of course, the strategy of public participation is a necessary but not sufficient condition to translate evidence into policies.