Probability without Equations: Concepts for Clinicians

Although few physicians, nurses, dentists and other health professionals perform laboratory test themselves, they need to be able to interpret their results and understand findings. This text offers an explanation of the necessary details in probability and statistics in a non-technical treatment.Although few physicians, nurses, dentists and other health professionals perform laboratory tests themselves, they need to be able to interpret the results and understand findings reported in medical literature. A general understanding of probability and statistics is essential for those needing to make daily decisions about the significance of research data, drug interaction precautions, or a patient's positive laboratory test for a rare disease. Written to address these needs, this volume offers an explanation of the subject whilst attempting to avoid overwhelming the reader with equations and footnotes. The author presents a non-technical treatment of intuitive concepts and presents examples from medical research and practice. In plain language, the book explains the topics that clinicians need to understand: analysis of variance; "p-values" and the "t-test"; hazard models; regression and correlations; and alpha and beta errors.