Specificity is a critical aspect of medical testing that measures the probability of a negative test result in someone without a particular pathology. A highly specific test accurately identifies individuals with a specific disease while producing negative results for everyone without the disease. This ability to exclude healthy individuals from a diagnosis is crucial for minimizing false-positive results and ensuring appropriate treatment. Understanding specificity is essential for interpreting medical test results and making informed decisions about patient care.
Specificity: The probability of a negative test result in someone who does not have the pathology (the probability of a true negative). The ability to "specifically" identify only those individuals with the disease, by getting a negative result from everyone who does not.
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