Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

When Does Combining Markers Improve Classification Performance And What Are Implications For Practice?, Aasthaa Bansal, Margaret Sullivan Pepe

UW Biostatistics Working Paper Series

When an existing standard marker does not have sufficient classification accuracy on its own, new markers are sought with the goal of yielding a combination with better performance. The primary criterion for selecting new markers is that they have good performance on their own and preferably be uncorrelated with the standard. Most often linear combinations are considered. In this paper we investigate the increment in performance that is possible by combining a novel continuous marker with a moderately performing standard continuous marker under a variety of biologically motivated models for their joint distribution. We find that an uncorrelated continuous marker …