Treatment Scores Solve Problems

Dr. Kit Byatt and Sarah Chapman recently published an article titled, "Being patient with EBM. 'Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should' – supporting informed decision-making." 

It's an excellent article about what patients, doctors, and healthcare journalists need, so let's offer a solution.


The authors want certain things when it comes to medical information. They see problems. To quote from them:

  • "Offer people information about their absolute risk of...absolute benefits and harms of an intervention...."

"This information should be in a form that:

  • "presents individualised risk and benefit scenarios and
  • "presents the absolute risk of events numerically and
  • "uses appropriate diagrams and text."

Treatment Scores solve the problems listed in this article. The Treatment Score = the net treatment benefit for the patient. 

Furthermore, the Treatment Score = the net treatment benefit for the patient using evidence-based medicine guidelines and shared decision-making. In other words, Treatment Scores make the medical literature simple and understandable for patients, doctors, and healthcare reporters using absolute outcome measures. Treatment Scores also allow for the values and preferences of patients to be taken into account.

What patients need, and what physicians and healthcare journalists need to report is a list of treatments with Treatment Scores for every disease. Treatment Scores would be the starting point for shared decision-making because of the chain of visual aids behind them that make them clear, understandable, and adaptable to patient input.

REFERENCE:
Kit Byatt and Sarah Chapman. "Being patient with EBM. 'Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should' – supporting informed decision-making." Evidently Cochrane. April 26, 2018.
http://www.evidentlycochrane.net/being-patient-with-ebm-supporting-informed-decision-making/

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