Why BRCTs Matter: The Case of HPV Immunization
When is 64% the same as 4/1000? Very frequently, as least when it comes to the presentation of medical data. Relative risk/benefit can...
Prilosec, Chronic Kidney Disease, and Fuzzy Numbers
This week the major media outlets published results of a JAMA Internal Medicine study linking proton pump inhibitor (PPI, medicines like...
PSA Screening: How Shared Decision Making can Solve a Tough Problem.
PSA has always been a poster child of cancer screening. On the one hand, it does prevent the spread of prostate cancer in some people...
The SPRINT blood pressure study: Analyzing the actual numbers
The SPRINT study, that made the front page of several newspapers when it proclaimed that tight control of blood pressure (sbp under 120)...
Can a Test be used to Reduce Over-testing? Maybe!
Coronary Artery Calcification can be scored by a CT scan (CAC score) and may help determine who may or may not be at risk of having a...
A Novel Way to Present Health Data
We published an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun on November 2 discussing the use of BRCTs in the media. Please read it and if you agree with...
Lung Cancer Screening: Medicare is paying, but at what cost?
Imagine you are sitting in a 1000 seat theater filled with former or current heavy smokers, and you are told that Medicare will now pay...
CDC recommendations: Making Absolute Declarations using Relative Risks/Benefits
When CDC director Tom Frieden stated unequivocally that neuraminidase inhibitors (NIs), such as Tamiflu, should be given to all elderly...
How Relative Risks are relatively misleading
In our book, we discuss the very important concept of relative risk/benefit, and how that number--used regularly by the press,...
