This article assesses the merit of a test through the lenses of economics, with applications to SARS-CoV-2. This allows us to rank distinct tests and to show that this ranking is not universal; it depends on the pre-test information available to the decision-maker and the losses stemming from incorrect actions. We provide a method to select, from multiple tests with different sensitivity and specificity, the test that helps the decision-maker the most to achieve her objective.
Keywords: COVID-19; Portfolio of tests; Testing.
© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.