EBM® Easy Basic Math is Needed in Healthcare

EBM® Easy Basic Math is Needed in Healthcare
by BradMD
(Brad Hennenfent, MD)



There is an 88% health illiteracy rate according to Health.gov. How can patients understand healthcare better? I believe much of the health illiteracy problem is connected to the math illiteracy problem.  


A 2008 medical article defines evidence-based medicine as:

"Evidence based medicine (EBM) is the conscientious, explicit, judicious and reasonable use of modern, best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. EBM integrates clinical experience and patient values with the best available research information."SOURCE: Izet Masic, Milan Miokovic, and Belma Muhamedagic. Evidence Based Medicine – New Approaches and Challenges. Acta Inform Med. 2008; 16(4): 219–225. Accessed 11-28-2018. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3789163/


This means we need to combine the mathematics of three things for patients:

1. Statistics from the medical literature
2. Adjustments to those statistics based on the values and preferences of the physician
2. Further adjustments to those statistics based upon the values and preferences of the patient.

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