If you read (or produce) scientific literature, you are hopefully aware of and use some system to appreciate how good a particular type of study is. Most “Levels of Evidence” charts organize different types of evidence into some sort of […]
In life, we don’t tend to notice the mediocre or the average; rather, we notice extremes. We never think about the weather on an average day, but we always take note when it’s very hot or very cold, very dry […]
The ideal physician is not risk-averse but rather is a risk-mitigator. Risk is inescapable. We have to be able to understand risks in real terms and also be able to communicate those risks to patients in ways that matter. The […]
Imagine we design a test to detect a disease. In the graph below are 500 patients. Some patients have a positive test result and also have the disease; this is a True Positive (TP). Some patients don’t have the disease but […]
The ability to read scientific literature critically is one of the foundational skills of physicians. The most common way (and perhaps the most wrong way) that physicians read literature is to read the abstract of the paper (and sometimes just the […]
The diagnosis of ruptured membranes in pregnancy is clinically very important. Decisions about delivering a pregnancy, hospitalization, and even termination of pregnancies, often depend on being correct about this diagnosis. Understanding how to diagnose ruptured membranes is fundamental to the […]
Many great things have been written about the difference between Odds Ratios (OR) and Relative Risks (RR). Every medical student at some point has been taught the difference. Yet these statistical terms are confused and misused every day in both the […]
Risk distortion pervades our daily life. Whether we do or don’t do things, as the case may be, is affected by our perception of the risks associated with the activity. Both patients and providers tend to estimate risk incorrectly, either […]
