An Introduction to Systematic Reviews of Diagnostic Test Accuracy

*If your type of ticket is sold out, please join the waitlist or contact us at esi@universityofgalway.ie

Date: 19th April 2024

Time: 10.00am - 12:00pm

Places: 30 places for individuals who are resident on the island of Ireland

Background

As for any healthcare intervention, medical tests require thorough evaluation. Identifying the accuracy of a test is a key step in the evaluation process. Understanding other ways in which tests affect the clinical management of patients is also important – a new test may be more acceptable to patients, easier to administer, or provide a faster diagnosis or treatment.

The accuracy of a test is a measure of how well it differentiates those with a disease or condition from those who do not. Different, sometimes complex, study designs can be used to evaluate diagnostic accuracy. Measures of accuracy are also not fixed properties of a test and may not be transferable across different populations and settings. A systematic review aims to provide an overview of currently available evidence about a test’s diagnostic accuracy. A basic understanding of study designs, potential sources of bias, and factors that might affect the applicability of a study’s findings, are essential to ensure that the included studies answer a relevant review question.

Aim

To provide an introduction to systematic reviews of diagnostic test accuracy.

Learning outcomes

In this course participants will be enabled to:

• describe the key differences between systematic reviews of interventions and systematic reviews of test accuracy
• be aware of study designs used to estimate and compare the accuracy of tests
• be aware of the sources of bias and variation that occur in test accuracy studies
• be aware of the approaches used for meta-analysis of test accuracy and interpretation of meta-analytic estimates

This workshop will not cover how to conduct a meta-analysis of test accuracy studies

Teaching strategies

The workshop will consist of a mixture of short presentations and practical exercises.

Facilitator

Jac Dinnes, PhD

Senior Research Fellow in Test Evaluation

Test and Prediction group, Institute of Applied Research,

University of Birmingham UK

Course content

a) What is diagnostic test accuracy and why does it vary?

b) Defining the clinical testing pathway (formulating a review question)

c) Quality assessment of test accuracy studies

d) Understanding meta-analyses of test accuracy studies