Theory 05/Speed vs Accuracy/Diagnostics
Rapid Tests Trade Specificity
The claim
Rapid diagnostic tests trade specificity for speed, so the acceptable false-positive rate should be set by the cost of confirmatory testing rather than by the test alone.
01Mechanism
Faster assays use fewer processing steps, which removes discrimination; the resulting false positives must be absorbed downstream.
02Prediction
Rapid assays should show higher false-positive rates.
03Refutation
Specificity independent of assay time would remove the trade-off.