Affiliations: [a] Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK
| [b] Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, UK
| [c] Dementia Research Institute, University College London, London, UK
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Dr. Jemma Hazan, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 7BN, UK. E-mail: j.hazan@ucl.ac.uk.
Abstract: Changes in diagnostic certainty can be evaluated by assessing the impact of a diagnostic test in driving decision making. Diagnostic tests can be appraised using validated measures of accuracy, i.e., sensitivity, specificity, and positive or negative predictive values against a known reference standard. However, other less well formalized factors affect diagnostic certainty. These inputs are under-researched and more difficult to quantify. Clinicians assess the significance of available data in the context of their expertise, pre-diagnostic confidence, and background knowledge of populations and disease. Inherent qualities of the diagnostic test and an individual clinician’s interpretation of the meaning of test results will also affect the subsequent level of diagnostic certainty. These factors are only infrequently considered alongside the diagnostic accuracy of a test. In this paper, we present a model of the different processes which can affect diagnostic certainty in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This model builds upon existing understanding and provides further insights into the complexity of diagnostic certainty in AD and how we might improve this.
