Clinical Agreement
Synonyms
Definition
It is important in both clinical medicine and research to assess the extent to which different individuals (e.g., clinicians, observers) observe and report the same phenomenon (Jekel, Katz, Elmore, & Wild, 2007). Ideally, there would be perfect intraobserver agreement (the same person would always observe and report the same phenomenon in an identical manner), and perfect interobserver agreement (different people would observe and report the same phenomenon identically). However, these ideals are precisely that: they describe an ideal scenario, and real-life scenarios are often quite different. Elmore, Wells, Lee, Howard, and Feinstein (1994) studied both intraobserver and interobserver agreement among radiologists’ interpretations of a specific mammogram, demonstrating that radiologists can differ, sometimes substantially, in their interpretations of mammograms and in their recommendations for management.
References and Readings
- Elmore, J. G., Wells, C. K., Lee, C. H., Howard, D. H., & Feinstein, A. R. (1994). Variability in radiologistis’ interpretation of mamograms. The New England Journal of Medicine, 331, 1493–1499.PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
- Jekel, J. F., Katz, D. L., Elmore, J. G., & Wild, D. M. G. (2007). Epidemiology, biostatistics, and preventive medicine (3rd ed.). Philadelphia: Saunders/Elsevier.Google Scholar
- Sacket, D. L., Haynes, R. B., Guyatt, G. H., & Tugwell, P. (1991). Clinical epidemiology: A basic science for clinical medicine (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: Little/Brown.Google Scholar