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Laboratory tests that look good on the "drawing board" often turn out to have limited usefulness in routine practice.1 This problem is particularly troublesome when tests that are capable of detecting patients with overt disease are used to screen apparently healthy populations. In that situation, false-negative and false-positive tests occur with unexpected frequency.2 Yet pressure for screening—including the passage of laws mandating it—sometimes precedes the validation of new tests.3 The compulsion to apply new techniques without adequate validation extends beyond screening; hence the term, "technological imperative." The American Academy of Pediatric's Task Force on Genetic Screening called attention to this problem several years ago, echoing the words of a Committee of the National Academy of Sciences3,4:
Neil A. Holtzman (Sun,) studied this question.