Hello and welcome to episode 33.

This week’s episode is based on an educational article that appears in the BMJ . It provides an insight into the interpretation of lateral flow tests used in COVID-19 detection. However, additionally it provides a useful overview of how to assess test results by considering test function, the epidemiology of the disease as well as the limitation of so called ‘gold standard’ tests.

The article provides a useful diagram which helps to explain the concept of pre-test and post-test probability and how the latter is derived from knowledge of test sensitivity and specificity, plus how a post-test probability is used and informs the necessary next steps.

Certain parts of the article are read which you can follow in the text which is available on the BMJ website. The link to the article is in the notes.

https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1411