Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics
Gerd Gigerenzer, Wolfgang Gaissmaier, Elke Kurz-Milcke, Lisa M. Schwartz, and Steven Woloshin
Volume 8, Number 2
November 2007
Helping Doctors and Patients Make Sense of Health Statistics," the latest Psychological Science in the Public Interest, is available online. A distinguished panel of psychological scientists and physicians -- Gerd Gigerenzer, Wolfgang Gaissmaier, Elke Kurz-Milcke, Lisa M. Schwartz, and Steven Woloshin -- documents the impact of statistical illiteracy in assessing health risks and making critical decisions about individual health care and health care policies. As the title suggests, the authors also investigate specific strategies for improving the understanding and use of statistics, and for effective communication of health risks. The report includes an editorial by psychologist John Monahan, University of Virginia Law School, who underscores the importance of addressing this widespread and deleterious social problem.
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