This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related articles  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Psychiatry  • Depression  • Cardiovascular System  • Evidence-Based Medicine  • Statistics and Research Methods  • Prognosis/ Outcomes  • Angiology  • Cardiovascular Disease/ Myocardial Infarction  • Cardiac Diagnostic Tests  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Are We Neglecting the Neediest?

John A. Spertus, MD, MPH; Mark I. Furman, MD

Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(10):987-988.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The rational and efficient application of effective treatment to those who derive the most benefit is an inherent attribute of high-quality health care.¹ Yet how are physicians to accomplish this efficient and effective use of treatment within the frenetic pace of patient care? Accomplishing these aims requires adherence to a basic tenet of clinical epidemiology, that for an intervention with a given relative risk reduction, the absolute benefits are greatest in those with the greatest underlying risk.² For example, if the use of statin therapy in patients with coronary artery disease results in a 30% relative risk reduction in death and the underlying risk of mortality is 20%, then the absolute risk reduction is 6 deaths for each 100 patients treated and the number of patients who need to be treated to save 1 life is 17. Conversely, if the underlying . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AUTHOR INFORMATION


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLES

Management Patterns in Relation to Risk Stratification Among Patients With Non–ST Elevation Acute Coronary Syndromes
Andrew T. Yan, Raymond T. Yan, Mary Tan, Anthony Fung, Eric A. Cohen, David H. Fitchett, Anatoly Langer, Shaun G. Goodman, and for the Canadian Acute Coronary Syndromes 1 and 2 Registry Investigators
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(10):1009-1016.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Exploring the Treatment-Risk Paradox in Coronary Disease
Finlay A. McAlister, Antigone Oreopoulos, Colleen M. Norris, Michelle M. Graham, Ross T. Tsuyuki, Merril Knudtson, William A. Ghali, and for the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease (APPROACH) Investigators
Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(10):1019-1025.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Understanding Physicians' Risk Stratification of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Insights From the Canadian ACS 2 Registry
Yan et al.
Arch Intern Med 2009;169:372-378.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Treatment-Risk Paradox: More Complex Than We Think
JWatch Emergency Med. 2007;2007:5-5.
FULL TEXT  

The Treatment-Risk Paradox in Cardiology
Journal Watch Cardiology 2007;2007:4-4.
FULL TEXT