Web-based Computational Tools for Calculating Optimal Testing Pool Size for Diagnostic Tests of Infectious Diseases

Pooling together samples and testing the resulting mixture is gaining considerable interest as a potential method to markedly increase the rate of testing for SARS-CoV-2, given the resource limited conditions. Therefore, it has become important to design a user-friendly tool to assist clinicians and policy makers, to determine optimal testing pool and sub-pool sizes for their specific scenarios. We have developed such a tool (riteshsingh.github.io/poolsize). The algorithms employed are described in this paper. The code is open source for review and critique (github.com/RiteshSingh/poolsize​).