Systematic reviews to evaluate diagnostic tests

Diagnostic testing and screening is a critical part of the clinical process because inappropriate diagnostic strategies put patients at risk and entai l a serious waste of resources. It is being increasingly recognised that ab sence of clear summaries of individual research studies on the repeatabilit y, accuracy and impact of tests, which are often scattered across many diff erent journals, is a major impediment. Just as the need to develop means to systematically review research assessing the effectiveness of treatments h as been pursued over the last decade, so more recently attention has focuse d on how research on diagnostic tests might also be systematically reviewed . These reviews present a huge methodological challenge. This paper describ es the use of a systematic approach to collation, appraisal and synthesis o f information contained in the primary literature about accuracy of diagnos tic strategies. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.