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Why Do We Use Statistics In Medicine?

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Ian John Profile
Ian John answered
Although the advancement of medicine has prolonged and improved the life of many people over the years, it is important to remember that it is not an exact science. While some treatments do seem to offer a complete 'cure' for any particular ailment universally, the vast majority of medicinal treatments do not.

As such, it is important that statistics are used in medicine in order to justify the development and subsequent use of a particular drug or treatment; as well as identifying in the first place whether it is having the desired effect at all.

At the heart of the use of statistics in medicine is the seemingly insurmountable problem that everybody is different. Not only in a psychological sense, but a physiological sense too. While human beings may share similar organs, tissues and chemical compounds; how they are bonded, how we are composed and the effects different drugs have on the individual can be radically different from one person to the next.

Therefore, to measure the effectiveness of any form of medication, it is important to run trials where a wide variety of subjects are administered the drug. Firstly, this helps gage the effectiveness of the medicine when compared to, for example, a placebo. Subsequent statistical analysis can also give medical professionals and pharmaceutical companies the information they need to judge whether the medicine is an effective treatment for the majority of patients; and whether it is a cost-effective solution to a particular ailment.

Furthermore, once initial studies have been concluded and analyzed statistically, follow up studies can be initiated to investigate the initial statistical findings; providing further evidence as to the effectiveness of any form of treatment.

To briefly summarize; we use statistics in medicine to ensure that the care provided works and is to the benefit of as many people as possible, with as few detrimental affects possible.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Statistics is important for all kinds of activities. By statistics you may guess the efficiency of something. Statistics always help us to have a calculative assumption over something. In medicine, through the proper use of stat you can observe how much effective a particular drugs over a particular disease and thus you can be more accurate in choosing your decision.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Many pioneering medical discoveries such as cures for infectious diseased were found by doctors with an interest in statistics,  highlighting the increasing importance of statistics in medicine today.  The presence of statistics can be observed in many fields of health care and medicine, such as genetics where it is implemented to determine possible indicators of genetic abnormalities, such as birth defect and aging. It is also used in clinical trials for public health to diagnose disease, find new ways in which to prevent disease, prolong life, and promote health.  Epidemiology uses statistics to calculate cancer incident rates, monitor disease outbreaks and monitor changes in health-related behaviours such as smoking and physical activity.  Also, statistics is used in pharmacy to work in drugs discovery and development and to ensure the validity and accuracy of findings at all stages of the process
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Medical statistics provide useful information about, for example, incidence of disease (epidemiology) versus prevalence, transmission rates of communicable infections, clustering of diseases, mortality rates and so on. Statistics can be used to plan for interventions, including the number and type of staff who need to be deployed to an area, the funds and other physical resources which need to be attributed to deal with what is occurring. Medical statistics are vital for clinical research, forensic medicine and public health.
Mark Westbrook Profile
Mark Westbrook answered
Statistics are of the utmost importance. Data collected and collated throughout the country are invaluable.
How many operations completed, how long they took, was the operation without complication, infection occurred, did the patient suffer a stroke, did the patient die? You need this information to establish if your results are within the norms or if there is a problem.
Roger Macario Profile
Roger Macario answered

Statistics in medicine field deals with the application of statistics in medicine.Statistics is an essential part of medical research, statistical tests are used  to determine results from experiments, clinical trials of medicine and symptoms of diseases. The use of statistics in medicine provides to the public to better understand their risks for certain diseases.

http://symbiosisonlinepublishing.com/clinical-trials/

Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
The medical field has used statistics extensively for a very long time - perhaps more than any other field.
Here's one example: Taking measurements of many individuals to look for correlations between factors - such as geographic area and adult height.
 
google search results: 953,000 for "medical statistics".
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
In medical field statics plays a so vital role that they have a new branch which is known as biostatistics. One can Design and analyze the clinical trials in medicine. Like what is the probability that xyz medicine will be effective on diabetic patients and so on.

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