The Statistical Evaluation of Medical Tests for Classification and Prediction

Abstract The use of clinical and laboratory information to detect conditions and predict patient outcomes is a mainstay of medical practice. Modern biotechnology offers increasing potential to develop sophisticated tests for these purposes. This book describes the statistical concepts and techniques for evaluating the accuracy of medical tests. Worked examples include applications to cancer biomarker studies, prospective disease screening studies, diagnostic radiology studies and audiology testing studies. The statistical methodology can be broadly applied for evaluating classifiers and to problems beyond medical settings. Several measures for quantifying test accuracy are described including the Receiver…