Accuracy and Precision
- Accuracy of a laboratory test is its correspondence with the true value. Accuracy is maximized by calibrating laboratory equipment with reference material and by participation in external quality control programs.
- Precision is a measure of tests reproducibility when repeated on the same sample. An imprecise test is one that yield widely varying results on repeated measurement. The precision is monitored in laboratory by using control material.
Read more about this topic: Medical Test
Famous quotes containing the words accuracy and/or precision:
“Such is the never-failing beauty and accuracy of language, the most perfect art in the world; the chisel of a thousand years retouches it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)
“Some authorities hold that the young ought not to lie at all. That, of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still, while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain, and I believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910)