Even Doctors Misread Health Statistics
Reader Comments
Numbers, Numbers, Numbers, No Dice Game Here..
Did you ever buy radio advertising for your company. On ANY given day, hour or minute I wil promise you almost any this station can station can show you, THEY had the Number #1 ratings. Ok, let's cut the games out and TRY to deal with reality.
Come this Feb. 2009, will be seven years since, "I acquired the said to be Iatrogenic (Error in treatment) Neuromuscular Disease/Disorder named and I mean ONLY named some fifty years ago, Central Pontine Myelinolysis according to a Harvard Neuro Professor and his Colleagues. It just so happens in 2005 I was blessed to come upon the friendship of a Dr. Hugo W. Moser, best known from his work as he invented, "Larenzo's Oil." He once told me before his passing in January 2007 that I could trust statistics in medicine about as much as you could the data information on Death Certificates.
When my journals are produced in book form, If I personaly don't get produced yet in these so-called home-made stats, we all are going to be in for some great humor in the fifty years of nonsense do to ficticious numbers, reasons and causes.
Have a GREAT Thanksgiving everone. G-d Bless...
WhataBreeze and Franky (Neuro Canine Service Companion)
Note: Mr. Avery Camarow,
Truly enjoy most all of your articles. (Most all but not every Avery!)
Leave statistics to the statisticians
When I was diagnosed with cancer, one of the first and best suggestions one of my doctors made to me was to not use the statistics I would find in my research of my condition to predict my future. She reiterated all of the variables that could exist in the sample and methodology and reminded me that statistics, trends and headlines are not people. And, if statistics could predict my health, I shouldn't have gotten cancer in the first place.
This helped my attitude tremendously (which I believe research shows improve health with a statistically valid increase:), and was helpful when confronted with any data about my condition. I want my doctors to be as up to date as possible and help me understand how I should interpret research and data based on my individual health.
U.S. News's Avery Comarow has been editor of the America's Best Hospitals annual rankings since they first appeared in 1990. His reporting on clinical medicine, from the latest cholesterol guidelines to robotic surgery, has been driven by the question: What does this mean to patients? And that is the perspective he brings to his observations and commentaries on the increasing number of programs by hospitals and other healthcare providers to improve care and patient safety.
