How many raters? Toward the most reliable diagnostic consensus

Stat Med. 1992 Feb 15;11(3):317-31. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780110305.

Abstract

When faced with a decision whether or not to treat a patient, to enter or to withdraw a patient from a clinical trial, or any other such binary decision, based on diagnosis with unsatisfactory reliability, can a consensus diagnosis be used to improve reliability? If so, exactly how? That is the question I address here. I draw comparisons and contrasts between the known results with an interval consensus and those with a binary consensus and suggest tactics for use in a pilot study to answer the above questions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Clinical Trials as Topic / methods
  • Clinical Trials as Topic / statistics & numerical data
  • Decision Making*
  • Diagnosis*
  • Humans
  • Models, Statistical
  • Pilot Projects
  • Research Design
  • Sensitivity and Specificity