IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/medema/v19y1999i2p202-206.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Relative Entropy as a Measure of Diagnostic Information

Author

Listed:
  • William A. Benish

Abstract

Relative entropy is a concept within information theory that provides a measure of the distance between two probability distributions. The author proposes that the amount of information gained by performing a diagnostic test can be quantified by calculating the relative entropy between the posttest and pretest probability distributions. This statistic, in essence, quantifies the degree to which the results of a diagnostic test are likely to reduce our surprise upon ultimately learning a patient's diagnosis. A previously proposed measure of diagnostic information that is also based on information theory (pretest entropy minus posttest entropy) has been criticized as failing, in some cases, to agree with our intuitive concept of diagnostic information. The proposed formula passes the tests used to challenge this previous measure. Key words: diagnostic test; entropy; information theory; relative entropy; uncertainty. (Med Decis Making 1999;19: 202-206)

Suggested Citation

  • William A. Benish, 1999. "Relative Entropy as a Measure of Diagnostic Information," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 19(2), pages 202-206, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:19:y:1999:i:2:p:202-206
    DOI: 10.1177/0272989X9901900211
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X9901900211
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0272989X9901900211?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. George A. Diamond, 1991. "Point of Information," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 11(1), pages 42-44, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. David A. Asch & James P. Patton & John C. Hershey, 1991. "Prognostic Information versus Accuracy," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 11(1), pages 45-47, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:19:y:1999:i:2:p:202-206. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.