Half of women will get a false positive 3D mammogram, study finds

Re:Half of women will get a false positive 3D mammogram, stu... by WhitneyLand on Friday March 25, 2022 @07:01PM (#30807815)

Who defines “99% accurate”? Couldn’t it mean zero false positives and 1/100 positives missed?

Couldn’t it also alternatively be defined as 99% accurate for a given person?

Maybe there are reasons/conventions it is always as you originally describe, but if that’s the case wouldn’t it be more about poor communication to the public than a paradox?

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Re:Half of women will get a false positive 3D mammogram, stu... by dundarious on Friday March 25, 2022 @07:05PM (#30807845)

I think it’s correct that “99% accurate” here means “99% true positive and 1% false positive”. Agreed that “accurate” is ironically an awfully imprecise word to use.

As for why it is the case, I presume it is just the usual focus on counting your hits and not on your misses.

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