title: Testing an underlying assumption on a ROC curve based on rating data.
abstract: The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is widely accepted as the measurement that best represents the accuracy of a diagnostic system that consists of a diagnostic imaging modality and a reader who is interpreting results from the modality. However, there is one implicit assumption in a ROC curve: that the cutoff points to declare a positive test for decision variables of a diseased patient and a nondiseased patient are the same. If this assumption is violated, then a ROC curve does not exist. The author develops a statistical procedure to test this assumption. To demonstrate, he applies the method to a ROC data set and shows that the assumption of the equal cutoff points could be rejected.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis 46202-5200, USA.
authors.forename: X H
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D012372:ROC Curve; D011859:Radiography; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity