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Medicine requires doctors to constantly manage probabilities
“I’d really feel better if we got the MRI,” Ms. James said. “I understand you think it’s a migraine, but I want to know, just in case. Wouldn’t you?” Ms. James and I sat in her darkened hospital room-the light bothered her eyes and exacerbated her headache.
More on understanding Probabilities in Medicine:
How Well Do We Understand Probabilities In Medicine?
In his bestselling book, Fooled by Randomness (which was named one of the smartest books of all time by Fortune magazine), Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses a question that was posed to a group of medical doctors. A test of a disease presents a rate of 5% false positives.
Probability Science in medicine and physics
Probability Science and its problems, especially for medicine and physics