Technical Report XXVIII
A Software Tool for Calculating the Uncertainty of Diagnostic Accuracy Measures
T Chatzimichail, AT Hatjimihail
Abstract
Screening and diagnostic tests classify people into diseased and nondiseased populations. Although diagnostic accuracy measures are used to evaluate the correctness of a classification in clinical research and practice, there has been limited research on their uncertainty. The objective for this work was to develop a tool for calculating the uncertainty of diagnostic accuracy measures, as diagnostic accuracy is fundamental to clinical decision-making. This work aimed to develop a tool for calculating the uncertainty of diagnostic accuracy measures, as diagnostic accuracy is fundamental to clinical decision-making. For this reason, the freely available interactive program Diagnostic Uncertainty has been developed in the Wolfram Language. The program provides six modules with nine submodules for calculating and plotting the standard combined, measurement and sampling uncertainty and the resultant confidence intervals of various diagnostic accuracy measures of screening or diagnostic tests, which measure a normally distributed measurand applied at a single point in time to samples of nondiseased and diseased populations. This is done for differing sample sizes, mean and standard deviation of the measurand, diagnostic threshold, and standard measurement uncertainty of the test. The program's application is demonstrated with an illustrative example of glucose measurements in samples of diabetic and non-diabetic populations that shows the calculation of the uncertainty of diagnostic accuracy measures. The interactive program presented is user-friendly and can be used as a flexible educational and research tool in medical decision-making to calculate and explore the uncertainty of diagnostic accuracy measures.
First Published
08/11/2024
Citation
Chatzimichail T, Hatjimihail AT. A Software Tool for Calculating the Uncertainty of Diagnostic Accuracy Measures. Technical Report XXVIII. Hellenic Complex Systems Laboratory; 2024. Available at: https://www.hcsl.com/TR/hcsltr28/hcsltr28.pdf
Terms of Use
The material made freely available by Hellenic Complex Systems Laboratory is subject to its Terms of Use.