EMPIRICAL BAYES COMBINATION OF ESTIMATED AREAS UNDER ROC CURVES USINGESTIMATING EQUATIONS

ysynthesis of the empirical Bayes method and the method of estimating equations is used to combine individual receiver operating characteris tic (ROC) area estimates from different studies of the same diagnostic test into a single estimate. This single estimate represents the popu lation mean from which individual areas under the ROC curves were samp led. The only data needed to carry out the method are estimated areas under the ROC curves and the corresponding standard errors.