title: Simple statistical measures for diagnostic accuracy assessment.
abstract: The aim of diagnostic medicine research is to estimate and compare the accuracy of diagnostic tests to provide reliable information about a patient's disease status and thereby influencing patient care. When developing screening tools, researchers evaluate the discriminating power of the screening test by using simple measures such as the sensitivity and specificity of the test, as well as the positive and negative predictive values. In this brief report, we discuss these simple statistical measures that are used to quantify the diagnostic ability of a test.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. mandrekar.jay@mayo.edu
authors.forename: Jayawant N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Mandrekar
mesh_terms: D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine; D006801:Humans; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity