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What grabbed me: "In this short speech was the core of Warwick’s world view. He believed that excellence came from seeing, on a daily basis, the difference bet
by yesiamyourdad 12y ago
What grabbed me:
"In this short speech was the core of Warwick’s world view. He believed that excellence came from seeing, on a daily basis, the difference between being 99.5-per-cent successful and being 99.95-per-cent successful."
- hsitz 12y agoI took notice of that passage also. But the main reason the 99.5 to 99.95 percentages is meaningful is that they were measures of a daily risk. So it quickly compounds into a meaningful percentages; the 99.95% rate meant an 83% chance patient would stay well this year, the 99.5% rate meant only a 16% chance of staying well for this year. Many of the medical percentages that we see quoted in media are derived using a lifetime risk basis, _not_ a daily one. On a lifetime basis the difference between 99.95% and 99.5% _is_ negligible. I wonder how many people reading this article are aware of the difference.