Statistical Validation of Traditional Chinese Diagnostic Procedures

In recent years, the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for treatment of patients with critical and life-threatening diseases has attracted much attention in the pharmaceutical industry. The modernization of TCM is based on a scientific evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of the TCM in terms of some well-established quantitative instruments. As a result, statistical validation of such an instrument is essential to have an accurate and reliable clinical assessment of the performance of the TCM. Similar to the validation of a typical quality of life instrument, some validation performance characteristics such as validity, reliability, and ruggedness are considered. In this article, a design for validation of a standard quantitative instrument that is commonly employed for diagnosis of a patient's functions and activities, performance, signs and symptoms of disease, and disease status and severity based on Chinese diagnostic practice is proposed. Methods for statistical validation of ...