StatsMiniBlog: Exact vs. approximate

You may well come across descriptions in the stats parts of papers that describe how the authors have derived their confidence intervals using an exact method. Sounds very good, doesn’t it? Precise to the most precicestness. And yet … sometimes an approximate confidence interval is better. You see, it all means what ‘exact’ exactly refers […]

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Basics. How much is enough?

We’ve approached EBM by thinking about it as a framework for thinking, not a checklist to tick though. It’s the combination of patients views, clinical expertise and relevant research. The process is of asking, acquiring, appraising, applying and assessing. But when it comes to applying evidence to answer a question – how much is enough? […]

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Guest Post. Positive feedback

It seems almost every day that a negative healthcare story makes its way into the headlines; missed diagnoses; missed opportunities; repeated failings that suggest a lack of learning from previous serious incidents. While the issues raised by these stories may be significant, the articles rarely present a balanced account. The distorted information is presented for […]

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StatsMiniBlog. Regression

Now, regression is a bad thing if we’re talking development. It might be any number of really difficult to pronounce neurological conditions, or severe psychological trauma, or abuse/neglect. It’s not going to be good. In statistics, it’s not quite the same. Regression is quite often a good thing. But what is it? […]

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