Parametric three-way receiver operating characteristic surface analysis using mathematica.

Three-way receiver operating characteristic (ROC) surface analysis involves the calculation of a volume under an ROC surface (VUS), which is a measure of discriminatory accuracy of 2 diagnostic tests for 3 diseases. Nonparametric methods for calculating VUS and its standard error have been developed. The author presents the code for roc3D, a Mathematica computer program for performing parametric ROC surface analysis. roc3D calculates VUS assuming a multinormal distribution of test results in the 3 diseased populations, provides user-specified pointwise confidence limits for VUS, and displays a 3-dimensional plot of the ROC surface. Limitations of the roc3D program are discussed.