Diagnostic tests and litigation

A Litigation Primer On Diagnostic Imaging

a head trauma patient to the hospital radiology department to determine the extent of injury. An orthopedist refers a patient for an MRI to try to find out what has been causing the patient’s nagging back pain. A family doctor suggests to a patient that she have a bone density test. An obstetrician recommends an ultrasound for a pregnant patient. What do all of these scenarios have in common? T...

Assessing the Validity of Diagnostic Tests

STATISTICAL DEVELOPMENTS AND APPLICATIONS Diagnosing Tests: Using and Misusing Diagnostic and Screening Tests STREINER DIAGNOSTIC TESTS

Tests can be used either diagnostically (i.e., to confirm or rule out the presence of a condition in people suspected of having it) or as a screening instrument (determining who in a large group of people has the condition and often when those people are unaware of it or unwilling to admit to it). Tests that may be useful and accurate for diagnosis may actually do more harm than good when used ...

Specification and Diagnostic Tests

Each test procedure described below involves the specification of a null hypothesis, which is the hypothesis under test. Output from a test command consists of the sample values of one or more test statistics and their associated probability numbers (p-values). The latter indicate the probability of obtaining a test statistic whose absolute value is greater than or equal to that of the sample s...

Ophthalmic Instruments and Diagnostic Tests

The cover test is done to confirm the presence of a manifest squint. The patient is asked to look at the fixation target (a flashlight should never be used as a fixation target because it fails to control accommodation—an accommodative fixation target held at 33 cm is used for near and the Snellen 6/9 visual acuity symbol is used for distance fixation). The apparently fixating eye is then cover...