Thank you for your nice editorial. Today in the era of evidence based
medicine most of the published research articles appear to be a jargon of
statistics undermining the importance of stories behind the incept of
those research thoughts. The power of stories as described by Thomas B
Newman (1) is immense.
I can share a personal experience. While working as a junior resident
in a tertiary care hospital we were repeatedly sensitized with charts and
figures regarding prevention of needle stick injury. I was never
interested in remembering them all. One day my senior described the trauma
which one of his peers suffered after sustaining needle stick injury while
performing intravenous catheterization in an unscreened patient. After
hearing the story I became serious about seminars dealing with facts and
figures of needle stick injury.
Thus stories have a great impact on us since we are habituated to
receive this input right from childhood. Again as Dr. Tara Lamont pointed
out'without statistics story becomes mere anecdotes.'(2) A handshake of
story and statistics is welcome. It will really be a pleasure to read the
'Safety alerts ‘in BMJ if one can tell story through statistics in that
section.
With regards.
(1) Newman T. The power of stories over statistics. BMJ 2003;327:1424
-1427
(2 Lamont Tara. National Patient safety agency: combining stories
with statistics to minimize harms.BMJ 2009; 339: b 4489.
Rapid Response:
Telling stories through statistics
Respected editor,
Thank you for your nice editorial. Today in the era of evidence based
medicine most of the published research articles appear to be a jargon of
statistics undermining the importance of stories behind the incept of
those research thoughts. The power of stories as described by Thomas B
Newman (1) is immense.
I can share a personal experience. While working as a junior resident
in a tertiary care hospital we were repeatedly sensitized with charts and
figures regarding prevention of needle stick injury. I was never
interested in remembering them all. One day my senior described the trauma
which one of his peers suffered after sustaining needle stick injury while
performing intravenous catheterization in an unscreened patient. After
hearing the story I became serious about seminars dealing with facts and
figures of needle stick injury.
Thus stories have a great impact on us since we are habituated to
receive this input right from childhood. Again as Dr. Tara Lamont pointed
out'without statistics story becomes mere anecdotes.'(2) A handshake of
story and statistics is welcome. It will really be a pleasure to read the
'Safety alerts ‘in BMJ if one can tell story through statistics in that
section.
With regards.
(1) Newman T. The power of stories over statistics. BMJ 2003;327:1424
-1427
(2 Lamont Tara. National Patient safety agency: combining stories
with statistics to minimize harms.BMJ 2009; 339: b 4489.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests