Determination of Varying Group Sizes for Pooling Procedure

Area of Science:

• Statistics
• Epidemiology
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Pooled testing is efficient for screening infected specimens, particularly for rare diseases.
• Determining appropriate group size is crucial for effective pooled testing.
• Equal group sizes may be suboptimal when dealing with heterogeneous populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel sequential procedure for determining varying group sizes in pooled testing.
• To leverage individual information for optimizing group size determination.
• To develop a data-driven approach for flexible pooled testing strategies.

Main Methods:

• A sequential procedure was developed to determine varying group sizes.
• The method fully utilizes available individual information.
• Simulations were conducted to evaluate the procedure's performance.

Main Results:

• The proposed sequential procedure demonstrated good performance in parameter estimation.
• The data-driven approach effectively handles population heterogeneity.
• Varying group sizes can be adaptively determined using individual data.

Conclusions:

• The developed sequential procedure offers an effective strategy for optimizing pooled testing group sizes.
• This method is particularly valuable when population heterogeneity necessitates varying group sizes.
• The approach enhances the efficiency and accuracy of screening for rare infectious diseases.