Stat Med. 1992 Feb 15;11(3):317-31. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780110305.

How many raters? Toward the most reliable diagnostic consensus.

Statistics in medicine

H C Kraemer

PMID: 1609173 DOI: 10.1002/sim.4780110305

Abstract

When faced with a decision whether or not to treat a patient, to enter or to withdraw a patient from a clinical trial, or any other such binary decision, based on diagnosis with unsatisfactory reliability, can a consensus diagnosis be used to improve reliability? If so, exactly how? That is the question I address here. I draw comparisons and contrasts between the known results with an interval consensus and those with a binary consensus and suggest tactics for use in a pilot study to answer the above questions.

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MeSH terms

• Clinical Trials as Topic / methods
• Clinical Trials as Topic / statistics & numerical data
• Decision Making*
• Diagnosis*
• Humans
• Models, Statistical
• Pilot Projects
• Research Design
• Sensitivity and Specificity

Publication Types

• Journal Article
• Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Grant support

• MH30854/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States