Optimal pooled testing

Brett Saraniti ()

Health Care Management Science, 2006, vol. 9, issue 2, 143-149

Abstract: This paper first characterizes three pooled testing techniques for generic testing conditions. It then applies these methods to demonstrate potential costs savings for universal HIV screening in the United Stated and Thailand. The success of these techniques in general is shown to be dependent on the prevalence as well as the disparity in prevalence between high and low risk groups. Further limitations on effectiveness include the potential impact of dilution on sensitivity. This and other limitations are addressed in the second section which focuses on applications of the techniques. Cost reductions are demonstrated to be feasible at prevalence of up to 30% and increasing dramatically at lower rates. Applying optimal pooled testing to universal HIV screening would result in an annual savings of over $1.4 billion in the United States and over $130 million in Thailand. Recent calls for universal HIV testing are based on the cost effectiveness of routine screening. These assessments may substantially overstate the cost of routine screening which strengthens the argument for universal screening. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2006

Keywords: Pooled testing; HIV screening; Cost reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10729-006-7662-y (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:hcarem:v:9:y:2006:i:2:p:143-149

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/10729

DOI: 10.1007/s10729-006-7662-y

Access Statistics for this article

Health Care Management Science is currently edited by Yasar Ozcan

More articles in Health Care Management Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().