1B_Clinical Decision Analyses and ABR

Question 1

Name 3 things to consider when deciding on which test to use

Answer 1

• which test is best
• one test or many
• what criteria determine if the test is abnormal
• does the procedure vary for different populations

Question 2

What is a “true positive”?

Answer 2

Patients with a disease that are correctly identified by the test results (cut-off criteria)

Question 3

What is a “false positive”?

Answer 3

Healthy patients that are incorrectly identified by the test results (cut-off criteria) as having a disease

Question 4

What is a “true negative”?

Answer 4

Healthy patients that are correctly identified by the test results (cut-off criteria) as not having a disease

Question 5

What is a “false negative”?

Answer 5

Patients with a disease that are incorrectly identified by the test results (cut-off criteria) as being healthy

Question 6

What are some reasons we might not use the “gold standard” test all the time?

Answer 6

Money
Risk for patients
Lack of equipment…

Question 7

What is sensitivity? Give the formula

Answer 7

Sensitivity is the true positive rate - the number of patients with the disease who are correctly identified by the diagnostic test
Sensitivity = True positives / (true positives + false negative)

Question 8

What is specificity? Give the formula

Answer 8

Specificity is the true negative rate - the number of Disease Absent patients correctly identified by the diagnostic test
Specificity = True negatives / (true negatives + false positives)