Is This Medical Test Any Good?
A History and Philosophy of Evidence-Based Medical Test Evaluation
Paperback (Forthcoming)
(December 2026)
ISBN: 9783515141109
6.69 x 9.49 inches
Price: $99.00
Medical testing is central to medical practice, and yet the evaluation of tests has received much less attention than the evaluation of therapies. Tests are done for a wide variety of reasons, including to help diagnose disease, to select an appropriate therapy, to prognosticate, to monitor response to therapy, and to direct further testing. Despite the variety of roles tests play in medical practice, traditionally the evaluation of medical tests focuses on their diagnostic accuracy, using indices such as test sensitivity and specificity. This suggests that knowing the disease a patient has will reveal nearly everything that needs to be known to care properly for the patient, when this is often not the case. Furthermore, sensitivity and specificity are traditionally understood as fixed properties of a test, when they are not.
This book provides a philosophical analysis of the assumptions that underlie questionable judgements that are commonly made when evaluating medical tests, and an historical investigation of how these judgements have come to be accepted over the twentieth century. Its aim is to use integrated history and philosophy to highlight and address problems encountered in medical practice.
Other Titles in this Series
Medizin im Spiegel ihrer Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik
Schlüsselthemen für ein junges Querschnittsfach
Künstliche Intelligenz und Gesundheit
Ethische, philosophische und sozialwissenschaftliche Explorationen
Die Geschichte der Herzchirurgie der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Ein Beispiel für Spezialisierung und Multiprofessionalität in der Medizin
Blitze, Funken, Sensationen
Sinnüberschuss und Sinnreduktion elektrischer Heilapparate in Deutschland 1750–1930
Classification and Evolution in Biology, Linguistics and the History of Science
Concepts - Methods - Visualization
Volume 5
Die “Ephemeris” des Ulmer Arztes Johann Franc (1649–1725)
Reichsstädtisch-territoriale Netzwerke in der frühneuzeitlichen Arztpraxis
Zentrum und Peripherie in der Geschichte der Psychiatrie
Regionale, nationale und internationale Perspektiven
