Cost of speed: A practical approach to evaluate a screening method from a Bayesian perspective

Abstract

Utilization of rapid screening method presents an investment decision of laboratory assets. Screening methods are filtering procedures implemented to enable analysis of a large volume of samples in a rapid fashion. The principle of screening includes establishment of a threshold value as a selection criteria for the follow up confirmative analysis. Selection of a quality screening method determines the optimized utilization of laboratory resources. Two mathematical models are used to evaluate a screening method by directly comparing to a gold standard reference method. The first model utilizes the traditional receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve model to evaluate the screening method. A new model is proposed to access the accuracy and reliability of the screening method based on the gold standard reference method. The two models are extremely practical for a single laboratory to evaluate the reliability of a screening method when limited resources are available.