Posted by admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 19-08-2011
Tags: economics, finance, gold, gold standard, gold standard act, gold standard mcat, gold standard whey, gold standard whey protein review, money, politics
What is gold standard in diagnostic medicine?
The term gold standard is frequently used in medicine. I am bit confused about this term as there is no technique which is free of errors. Can some one tell the exact definition of gold standard.
It sounds like a combination of both answers above me are correct. I think the term started long ago as a measurement of value for paper money. This is what the world economy was based on.
As it refers to medicine it means to a diagnostic test that is definitive. An ideal gold standard test has a sensitivity of 100%. it identifies all individuals with a disease process; it does not have any false-positives. So ideally it would be without flaws.
An example would be a colonoscopy for colon cancer screening. It is the best test we have and the only one, which may cure the patient at the same time. There are other tests, but they are not often used as many times a colonoscopy needs to be done anyway.
The Gold Standard in Theory and Myth (by Joseph Salerno)