Number divide.
The medical community has been riddled with the problems of explaining numbers to the layman, since the day medical research started making headway. A significant number of research papers are published every month in innumerable medical journals in circulation on the globe. The researchers tell us figures and stats that enhance our ability to ascertain the right treatment modality for our patients at any given moment. Studies conducted all over the globe reject or recommend, based on their findings, different types of treatment modalities and lifestyles. Medical professionals and mainly doctors are the ones responsible for sharing this information with the ultimate consumer of the product_ the patient.
With increasing trend towards informed consent in any procedure or medical treatment undertaken by the doctors it is becoming evidently difficult for the doctors to explain to their patients what do all this research going on in the medical field means to them. For a layman odds ratios, means, medians, modes and probabilities carry no meaningful value. All he cares about is whether he will be able to live a healthy life to the very last day of his life or not. Thus the task of the doctor to involve the patient in informed decision making in matters of lifestyle changes are extremely difficult. The professional has to phrase the information diligently and appropriately so that the message gets across the table as effectively as it was meant to be.
Certain recommendations that are given are:
1- Have a thorough knowledge of the subject in question.
2- Be simple and to the point.
3- Try using analogies from everyday life.
4- Use the concept of positive incentive rather than negative incentive.
5- Change the numbers to simple figures that can be easily understood.
6- Round off figures to simplify them.
7- Make sure the message has been understood by the patient by making him repeat your advice.
The medical community has been riddled with the problems of explaining numbers to the layman, since the day medical research started making headway. A significant number of research papers are published every month in innumerable medical journals in circulation on the globe. The researchers tell us figures and stats that enhance our ability to ascertain the right treatment modality for our patients at any given moment. Studies conducted all over the globe reject or recommend, based on their findings, different types of treatment modalities and lifestyles. Medical professionals and mainly doctors are the ones responsible for sharing this information with the ultimate consumer of the product_ the patient.
With increasing trend towards informed consent in any procedure or medical treatment undertaken by the doctors it is becoming evidently difficult for the doctors to explain to their patients what do all this research going on in the medical field means to them. For a layman odds ratios, means, medians, modes and probabilities carry no meaningful value. All he cares about is whether he will be able to live a healthy life to the very last day of his life or not. Thus the task of the doctor to involve the patient in informed decision making in matters of lifestyle changes are extremely difficult. The professional has to phrase the information diligently and appropriately so that the message gets across the table as effectively as it was meant to be.
Certain recommendations that are given are:
1- Have a thorough knowledge of the subject in question.
2- Be simple and to the point.
3- Try using analogies from everyday life.
4- Use the concept of positive incentive rather than negative incentive.
5- Change the numbers to simple figures that can be easily understood.
6- Round off figures to simplify them.
7- Make sure the message has been understood by the patient by making him repeat your advice.
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