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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Enough with Made Up Statistics.



46% of all statistics are made up.

I come across various times in a day when I am quoted statistics of some sort like "26.5% of patient develop heart failure after a single meal containing excessive salt" or "12.45% of medical errors are due to physicians".

I remember during my fellowship I was doing a breast biopsy. That was was my second biopsy procedure, my first biopsy was a success. The patient asked me how many have you done. I replied "lets put it this way I have been successful 100% of the times". She was pleased for a short time until I told her that this is my second time!

Sometimes I am amazed at the recall people have with these numbers. Now I am not so bad with recalling the numbers but some of my colleagues are just too amazing. So naturally I decided to make a note of these numbers and started to check these figures. I was amazed that 46% of the times these were wrong.  

So remember for next time, 46% of statistics are made up................ including this one :)

Blog you later.

Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off.  ~Paul Brodeur, Outrageous Misconduct

About the picture: 100% Downtown.

1 comment:

Arshia said...

:) good point you have raised here.... i get impressed by people quoting statistics too, but can never reproduce it...thanks for putting my mind at ease :)