MetaDTA: an Online Application for Diagnostic Test Accuracy Meta-analysis

Abstract

MetaDTA is an online, interactive application for Meta-analysis of diagnostic test accuracy studies, which calls on the lme4 and shiny packages in R software to perform the statistical analyses and create an interactive user interface. The application does not require any knowledge of statistics and programming, nor does it require any specialized software to be installed, making it easy to use for users with no specialized statistical knowledge. In this paper, we will focus on the quantification of diagnostic test accuracy, visualisation of results and interactive functions of the MetaDTA platform, and introduce users to the specific operation of the application with examples, aiming to help relevant researchers to complete Meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy studies, plot summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves, draw the results of the evaluation of the quality of the included studies, and carry out sensitivity analysis.

Keywords

• metadta|diagnostic test accuracy|meta-analysis|bivariate model