{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,29]],"date-time":"2026-07-29T00:43:36Z","timestamp":1785285816921,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"23-24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]],"date-time":"2025-10-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1760659200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":16,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000183","name":"Army Research Office","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["W911NF\u201023\u20101\u20100129"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["W911NF\u201023\u20101\u20100129"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000183","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Statistics in Medicine"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2025,10]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    The use of multiple tests can improve medical decision making by balancing the benefits of correctly treating ill patients and avoiding unnecessary treatment for healthy individuals against the potential harms of missed diagnoses, inappropriate treatments, and the costs and risks associated with testing. We quantify the incremental net benefit (INB) of single and multiple tests by accounting for a patient's pre\u2010test probability of disease and the associated benefits, harms, and cost of treatment and testing. We decompose the INB into two components: one that captures the value of information provided by the test, independent of the cost and possible harm of testing, and another that accounts for test costs and harm. Next, we examine conjunctive, disjunctive, and majority aggregation functions, demonstrating their application through examples in prostate cancer, colorectal cancer, and stable coronary artery disease diagnostics. Our approach complements traditional threshold and decision\u2010curve analysis by varying both the pre\u2010test probability of disease and the cost\u2010benefit trade\u2010off of treatment to identify the region over which a given test provides the highest INB. Using empirical test and cost data, we compute decision boundaries to determine when conjunctive, disjunctive, majority, or even single tests are optimal, and, for combinations of tests, in what order they should be administered. In all three application examples, we find that the optimal choice and sequence of tests jointly depend on the probability of disease and the cost\u2010benefit trade\u2010off of treatment. An online tool that visualizes the INB for combined tests is available at\n                    <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xlink\" xlink:href=\"https:\/\/optimal-testing.streamlit.app\/\">https:\/\/optimal\u2010testing.streamlit.app\/<\/jats:ext-link>\n                    .\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/sim.70254","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]],"date-time":"2025-10-17T14:24:42Z","timestamp":1760711082000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Determining the Optimal Sequence of Multiple Tests"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"44","author":[{"given":"Lucas","family":"B\u00f6ttcher","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computational Science and Philosophy Frankfurt School of Finance and Management  Frankfurt am Main Germany"},{"name":"Laboratory for Systems Medicine, Department of Medicine University of Florida  Gainesville Florida USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5029-7274","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stefan","family":"Felder","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Business and Economics University of Basel  Basel Switzerland"},{"name":"Faculty of Business and Economics University of Duisburg\u2010Essen  Essen Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_10_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0272-2712(18)31018-7"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_3_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/2530645"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0272989X8600600203"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/2531772"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1038\/s41591-020-0891-7"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_7_1","unstructured":"S.Jain J. O.J\u00f3nasson J.Pauphilet et al. \u201cA New Combination Testing Methodology to Identify Accurate and Economical Point\u2010Of\u2010Care Testing Strategies \u201d Medrxiv(2021) https:\/\/www.medrxiv.org\/content\/early\/2021\/06\/16\/2021.06.15.21257351."},{"key":"e_1_2_10_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1287\/mnsc.2023.4826"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_9_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1186\/s12889-021-12489-8"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1136\/jcp-2022-208171"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0272989X8200200108"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/0020-7101(93)90034-4"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_13_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-662-64654-0"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/antib10040050"},{"issue":"7","key":"e_1_2_10_15_1","article-title":"Rapid, Point\u2010Of\u2010Care Antigen Tests for Diagnosis of SARS\u2010CoV\u20102 Infection","volume":"7","author":"Dinnes J.","year":"2022","journal-title":"Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews"},{"key":"e_1_2_10_16_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2337\/diacare.29.02.06.dc05-1229"},{"issue":"4","key":"e_1_2_10_17_1","first-page":"OC05","article-title":"Accuracy and Precision of Measured Blood Sugar Values by Three Glucometers Compared to the Standard Technique","volume":"11","author":"Kermani S. 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