Internal medicine residents had low scores in a test of biostatistics knowledge, and about three-fourths of the residents surveyed indicated they have low confidence in understanding the statistics they encounter in medical literature, according to an article in the September 5 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on medical education.“Physicians must keep current with clinical information to practice evidence-based medicine,” the authors write. “… to answer many of their clinical questions, physicians need to access reports of original research. This requires the reader to critically appraise the design, conduct, and analysis of each study and subsequently interpret the results.” Little is known about residents’ ability to understand statistical methods or how to appropriately interpret research outcomes.
