With evolution of evidence-based medicine, greater weightage was given to statistics and population-based studies. However, such predictions were often biased and influenced by several factors. Such risk estimates and predictions were often made by physicians in the past on the basis of their own clinical experiences. Treating physicians and patients would like to have a clear vision of magnitude of risk and possible outcome of different medical conditions. In recent times with advancement of android technology, easy to download apps (applications) has helped further to have the benefits of these online risk engines and scoring systems at our finger tips. However, with evolution of information technology such calculations became easier to make with use of online web-based tools. These scoring systems and risk engines to begin with were available for manual calculations and references/use of formula and paper charts were essential. Each risk engine or clinical scoring tool is derived from data obtained from a particular population and its results are not generalizable and hence its ability to predict risk/outcome in a different population with differences in ethnicity, ages, and differences in distribution of risk factors over time both within and between populations. Understandably, the accuracy of prediction of different risk engines and scoring systems are highly variable and has several limitations. From health policy makers point of view it helps in appropriate disbursement of available resources for greatest benefit of population at risk. Such risk engines and scoring systems are able to predict disease outcome and risks of possible complications with varying degrees of accuracy. With evolution of evidence-based medicine, risk prediction equations have been formulated and validated.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |