A Boston Globe story about a study in the September 5 Journal of the American Medical Association reports:
"...a recent study from researchers at the Yale School of Medicine shows that physicians just out of medical school have difficulty interpreting the statistics presented in medical articles, possibly affecting how they understand and apply the new findings to clinical practice. Researchers took several journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine, and presented actual summaries, charts, and tables in the form of multiple choice questions to nearly 300 internal medicine residents from more than 10 different residency programs. The new doctors received scores of 41 percent on average on the test, implying that there were significant deficits in their understanding of the statistics presented in the journal articles. The residents who had been trained in biostatistics or who had a degree in public health performed better than those without that training. "The study shows that most residents lack the necessary background in biostatistics to interpret medical research," said lead author Dr. Donna Windish."Posted by schwitz at September 11, 2007 09:42 AM | TrackBack