Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Observations Statistics in Medicine

Risky business: doctors’ understanding of statistics

BMJ 2014; 349 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.g5619 (Published 17 September 2014) Cite this as: BMJ 2014;349:g5619

Rapid Response:

Actually, I agree with John Lowe, as I realised the minute after I fired off my last response. Probability and uncertainty is difficult, especially when predicting the future !!

But in fact that does mean we are both on the same page in the real world - real doctors have serious matters to deal with, and will need a whole new way of thinking to grasp the real relevance of risk !

Gerd Grigerenzer thought natural frequencies would be the solution, but I think pictures, fuzzy thinking, and not precision maths, are probably the way to go.

Competing interests: Having a life

24 September 2014
Lewis L Sam
retired GP
NHS
Surgery, Newport, Pembrokeshire, SA42 0TJ