When Health Screening Goes Wrong

Common Sense Health · May 6, 2026 · 11m · transcript

This conversation delves into the complexities of population health screening tests, highlighting the difference between screening and diagnostic tests, the mathematics behind screening tests, the performance of widely used screening tests, and the importance of interpreting screening results in the context of individual health and risk factors.

Takeaways

Screening tests are not diagnostic tests

Positive predictive value depends heavily on the prevalence of the disease

Chapters

00:00 Interpreting Screening Results and Context