Question

Explain why clinicians may be overly influenced by negative tests with poor sensitivity. (consider the implications of diagnostic tests that demonstrate poor sensitivity)

Answer 1

One of the most common terms used in a clinical test are Sensitivity and specificity.Positive and negative predictive values are useful when considering the value of a test to clinician.The higher the sensitivity ,the lower the specificity .So clinical tests are used to confirm or refute the presence of a disease.A perfect test is never positive in a patient who is disease free and is never negative in a patient who is diseased.A test with 100% sensitivity correctly identifies all patients with the disease.A test with 70% sensitivity detects 70% of patients with the disease (true positives) but 30% with disease go undetected(false negatives).So a high sensitivity is important when it comes to identifying a serious but treatable disease.