Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

Estimating the error rates of diagnostic tests

S L Hui, S D Walter

|March 1, 1980

Summary

This study presents a maximum likelihood method to estimate the accuracy of new diagnostic tests compared to standard tests. The approach works even when the standard test has unknown error rates and considers different disease prevalences.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Estimating the rate of overdiagnosis with prostate cancer screening: evidence from the Finnish component of the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer.

Cancer causes & control : CCC·2021

Same author

Relative efficiencies of alternative preference-based designs for randomised trials.

Statistical methods in medical research·2020

Same author

A systematic survey of randomised trials that stopped early for reasons of futility.

BMC medical research methodology·2020

Same author

Corrigendum to "Studies reporting ROC curves of diagnostic and prediction data were incorporated into meta-analyses using corresponding odds ratios" [J Clin Epidemiol. 2007 May;60(5):530-4].

Journal of clinical epidemiology·2019

Same author

Randomised trials with provision for early stopping for benefit (or harm): The impact on the estimated treatment effect.

Statistics in medicine·2019

Same author

Letter to the Editor: Preference option randomized design (PORD) for comparative effectiveness research: Statistical power for testing comparative effect, preference effect, selection effect, intent-to-treat effect, and overall effect (SMMR, Vol. 28, Issue 2, 2019).

Statistical methods in medical research·2018

Area of Science:

Biostatistics
Medical Diagnostics
Epidemiology

Background:

Evaluating new diagnostic tests against established standards is crucial.
Standard tests often have unknown error rates, complicating accuracy assessment.
Disease prevalence can vary significantly between different populations.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop a statistical method for estimating the accuracy of a new diagnostic test.
To address the challenge of unknown error rates in standard diagnostic tests.
To account for varying disease prevalences in different populations.

Main Methods:

A maximum likelihood procedure was employed for estimation.
The method assumes conditional independence of errors between the two tests.
Simultaneous application of tests to individuals from two populations with differing prevalences was utilized.

Main Results:

The study successfully estimated error rates for both the new and standard tests.
True disease prevalences in both populations were accurately estimated.
The methodology allows for generalization to multiple tests and populations.

Conclusions:

The proposed maximum likelihood method provides a robust way to evaluate new diagnostic test accuracy.
This approach is valuable when standard test error rates are unknown.
The method is adaptable for complex scenarios involving multiple tests and populations.

Related Experiment Videos