Research on diagnostic medicine has been directed at a number of topics in the past decade. Issues which have received a lot of attention are ROC analysis and the identification and correction of various analytic biases. Other topics of widespread interest include the use of expert systems, the relationship of such systems to statistical data-based systems, and the evaluation of tests using cost-effectiveness analysis. Increasingly there is a sentiment that well-designed, prospective trials are required to provide credible information on the accuracy of diagnostic technologies, and so a consensus on methodological standards is needed, paralleling the earlier development of such standards in clinical trials and epidemiology.