A variety of procedures that help doctors diagnose ailments and disorders. Some medical tests are entirely benign, uninvasive, and risk-free, such as at the simplest level the placing of a stethoscope on a child’s chest or collecting a urine sample for testing. By contrast, some tests are invasive that is, they involve intruding into the body, as with an injection of dyed fluid and involve pain or risk; they should not be used unless the information to be gained is of sufficient importance to warrant their use.
Tests might be conducted to explore the origins of symptoms, establish a diagnosis, track the progression of a condition, or evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. When a medical assessment is administered to seemingly healthy individuals to detect diseases in their initial phases, it’s referred to as screening.
The precision of a test relies on its sensitivity (capacity to accurately detect individuals with the disease), specificity (capacity to accurately identify individuals without the disease), and predictive value. This predictive value is calculated using a mathematical formula that incorporates the count of correct test outcomes and the overall number of tests conducted. The most effective tests exhibit both elevated specificity and sensitivity, consequently yielding a high predictive value.