Lab Medicine Basics (Lecture 1)

Question 1

what reasons are there to do lab tests?

Answer 1

diagnosis, monitoring therapy, disease screening

Question 2

to confirm disease choose a test with ___

Answer 2

high specificity

Question 3

to rule out disease choose a test with ___

Answer 3

high sensitivity

Question 4

what are the salient characteristics of tests that are used to monitor therapy?

Answer 4

reliability and accuracy

Question 5

with tests that screen for disease, you want to balance ___

Answer 5

sensitivity and specificity

Question 6

define specificity

Answer 6

measures proportion of negatives which are correctly identified (i.e., % of healthy ppl who are correctly identified as not having the disease)

Question 7

define sensitivity

Answer 7

measures proportion of actual positives which are correctly identified (i.e., % of sick ppl who are correctly identified as having the disease)

Question 8

define reliability

Answer 8

the ability of a test system to get the same answer under the same conditions with repeated measurements

Question 9

define accuracy

Answer 9

the ability of a test system to get the correct answer

Question 10

what are the 3 elements of laboratory quality management?

Answer 10

quality control (known values), proficiency testing (true unknowns), quality improvement