A test with high sensitivity is often a reliable indicator of ruling out a disease because a negative result can reliably be assumed to be true. An easy way to remember this is remembering the word "SN OUT," meaning sensitivity is used to "rule OUT" disease.
Because a test with high sensitivity rarely misses true positives among those who are actually positive, it is often used as a screening test to ensure that all people with disease are identified. However, tests with high sensitivity can create false positives, meaning patients that do not have disease may have a positive test result.
The formula for identifying sensitivity equals the number of true positives divided by the (number of true positives + the number of false negatives).
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