Gold Standard (test)
In medicine and statistics, gold standard test refers to a diagnostic test or benchmark that is the best available under reasonable conditions. It does not have to be necessarily the best possible test for the condition in absolute terms. For example, in medicine, dealing with conditions that require an autopsy to have a perfect diagnosis, the gold standard test is normally less accurate than the autopsy.
Other times, gold standard is used to refer to the most accurate test possible without restrictions. The word is therefore ambiguous and its meaning should be deduced from the context in which it appears.
Read more about Gold Standard (test): In Medicine, Test Calibration, Gold Standard Ambiguity
Famous quotes containing the words gold and/or standard:
“How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Error is a supposition that pleasure and pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in matter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind’s faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth. Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not. If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should have a self-evident absurdity—namely, erroneous truth. Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.”
—Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910)