How does statistical significance differ from clinical significance?
Once you’ve decided your study has something meaningful to contribute to your patients care, you need to decide whether and how to incorporate its findings into your recommendations for this patient. This is where your clinical judgment comes into play. Even though your appraisal of the evidence strongly suggests a given course of action, you and your patient may legitimately choose to take another path. This is because outcomes research is only a piece of the puzzle, albeit an extremely valuable piece that should always be given serious consideration. For example, while insulin appears to be a better choice according to the evidence, you still need to consider numerous other factors. In this case, taking insulin will have a tremendous impact on your patient’s quality of life and her negative attitude is likely to compromise her adherence to your advice. On the other hand, your patient will eventually need insulin anyway, and in the long run it may be far less expensive than this new m
