Machine learning augmented diagnostic testing to identify sources of variability in test performance

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Banks, Christopher J., Sanchez, Aeron, Stewart, Vicki, Bowen, Kate, Doherty, Thomas, Tearne, Oliver, Smith, Graham, Kao, Rowland R.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Banks, Christopher J.
Sanchez, Aeron
Stewart, Vicki
Bowen, Kate
Doherty, Thomas
Tearne, Oliver
Smith, Graham
Kao, Rowland R.
author_facet Banks, Christopher J.
Sanchez, Aeron
Stewart, Vicki
Bowen, Kate
Doherty, Thomas
Tearne, Oliver
Smith, Graham
Kao, Rowland R.
contents Diagnostic tests that can detect pre-clinical or sub-clinical infection, are one of the most powerful tools in our armoury of weapons to control infectious diseases. Considerable effort has been paid to improving diagnostic testing for human, plant and animal diseases, including strategies for targeting the use of diagnostic tests towards individuals who are more likely to be infected. We use machine learning to assess the surrounding risk landscape under which a diagnostic test is applied to augment its interpretation. We develop this to predict the occurrence of bovine tuberculosis incidents in cattle herds, exploiting the availability of exceptionally detailed testing records. We show that, without compromising test specificity, test sensitivity can be improved so that the proportion of infected herds detected improves by over 5 percentage points, or 240 additional infected herds detected in one year beyond those detected by the skin test alone. We also use feature importance testing for assessing the weighting of risk factors. While many factors are associated with increased risk of incidents, of note are several factors that suggest that in some herds there is a higher risk of infection going undetected.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_03678
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Machine learning augmented diagnostic testing to identify sources of variability in test performance
Banks, Christopher J.
Sanchez, Aeron
Stewart, Vicki
Bowen, Kate
Doherty, Thomas
Tearne, Oliver
Smith, Graham
Kao, Rowland R.
Machine Learning
Populations and Evolution
Applications
Diagnostic tests that can detect pre-clinical or sub-clinical infection, are one of the most powerful tools in our armoury of weapons to control infectious diseases. Considerable effort has been paid to improving diagnostic testing for human, plant and animal diseases, including strategies for targeting the use of diagnostic tests towards individuals who are more likely to be infected. We use machine learning to assess the surrounding risk landscape under which a diagnostic test is applied to augment its interpretation. We develop this to predict the occurrence of bovine tuberculosis incidents in cattle herds, exploiting the availability of exceptionally detailed testing records. We show that, without compromising test specificity, test sensitivity can be improved so that the proportion of infected herds detected improves by over 5 percentage points, or 240 additional infected herds detected in one year beyond those detected by the skin test alone. We also use feature importance testing for assessing the weighting of risk factors. While many factors are associated with increased risk of incidents, of note are several factors that suggest that in some herds there is a higher risk of infection going undetected.
title Machine learning augmented diagnostic testing to identify sources of variability in test performance
topic Machine Learning
Populations and Evolution
Applications
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.03678