Teaching numeracy to physicians-in-training. Quantitative analysis for evidence-based medicine.

Many physicians admit to having some degree of innumeracy--difficulty understanding and working with numbers. Yet, increasingly, physicians in all specialties are committing to practicing evidence-based medicine (EBM) and, as a result, must learn to discern quantitative differences and address statistical significance. Although no one expects a practicing physician to be able to evaluate a statistician's choice of methods or conduct an independent rendering of a clinical study's analysis, practitioners of EBM must learn how to assess the importance of results found in a clinical study. Since 2001, Mayo Clinic has been teaching its residents in pediatric and adolescent medicine the skills required for EBM. This article describes the 5 steps involved in practicing EBM, focusing on the interpretation of study results.