Thinking about risk : Can doctors and patients talk the same language?

Different mathematical expressions of risk are difficult enough for the doctor, but are likely to be harder for patients. Misselbrook and Armstrong showed that patients make very different choices about treatment depending on which of the above risk statistics they used as the basis of their judgement. Rather than empowering patients, such risk models can therefore make them yet more dependent on their doctors. Mathematical models are designed for the world of the doctor and do not fit easily with the world of the patient. So how can we proceed?

Comment in NNT is not easily understood. [Fam Pract. 2002]

Comment on Interpretation of and preference for probability expressions among Japanese patients and physicians. [Fam Pract. 2002]