Determining the value of diagnostic and screening tests

Rapid advances in medical technology frequently lead to the development of new diagnostic procedures whose value should be determined before they are used widely. These values can be measured in terms of health and money. Health values relate to the accurate identification and successful treatment of disease; financial values relate to the husbanding of monetary resources expended for health services. In this discussion we shall review briefly the fundamentals of decision analysis as applied to medical diagnosis. We shall then show how these lead to a general approach to the evaluation of new tests using examples from our own work and that of others. (June 1976)