Beta-binomial analysis of variance model for network meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy data.

There are several generalized linear mixed models to combine direct and indirect evidence on several diagnostic tests from related but independent diagnostic studies simultaneously also known as network meta-analysis. The popularity of these models is due to the attractive features of the normal distribution and the availability of statistical software to obtain parameter estimates. However, modeling the latent sensitivity and specificity using the normal distribution after transformation is neither natural nor computationally convenient.

ANOVA model for network meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy data.

Procedures combining and summarising direct and indirect evidence from independent studies assessing the diagnostic accuracy of different tests for the same disease are referred to network meta-analysis. Network meta-analysis provides a unified inference framework and uses the data more efficiently. Nonetheless, handling the inherent correlation between sensitivity and specificity continues to be a statistical challenge.