Is This Medical Test Any Good?
Is This Medical Test Any Good?
Medical testing is central to medical practice, and yet the evaluation of tests has received much less attention than the evaluation of therapies. Tests are done for a wide variety of reasons, including to help diagnose disease, to select an appropriate therapy, to prognosticate, to monitor response to therapy, and to direct further testing. Despite the variety of roles tests play in medical practice, traditionally the evaluation of medical tests focuses on their diagnostic accuracy, using indices such as test sensitivity and specificity. This suggests that knowing the disease a patient has will reveal nearly everything that needs to be known to care properly for the patient, when this is often not the case. Furthermore, sensitivity and specificity are traditionally understood as fixed properties of a test, when they are not.
This book provides a philosophical analysis of the assumptions that underlie questionable judgements that are commonly made when evaluating medical tests, and an historical investigation of how these judgements have come to be accepted over the twentieth century. Its aim is to use integrated history and philosophy to highlight and address problems encountered in medical practice.
| Series | Kulturanamnesen |
|---|---|
| Volume | 17 |
| ISBN | 978-3-515-14110-9 |
| Media type | Book - Paperback |
| Edition number | 1. |
| Copyright year | 2027 |
| Publisher | Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH |
| Length | 350 pages |
| Illustrations | 11 b/w figs. |
| Size | 17.0 x 24.0 cm |
| Language | English |
