Even without our biases, the outlook for prognostication is grim
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Correspondence: James Downar james.downar@utoronto.ca
University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Toronto East General Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Toronto General Hospital, 9N-926, 200 Elizabeth St, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5G 2C4
Critical Care 2009, 13:168 doi:10.1186/cc7944
Published: 20 July 2009Abstract
Physicians are biased and imprecise, but we are better at predicting mortality in the intensive care unit than any mathematical model currently available. But even if we were flawless prognosticators, we would still be left with the larger ethical problem of what to do with prognostic information. In order to translate prognosis into recommendation, we need to know about patient values.