The issue of positive predictive value versus specificity comes up almost every day in my work as a pathologist. There is widespread misunderstanding, and in my own anecdotal experience, it very frequently results in unnecessary lab testing and misinterpretation of test results by clinicians.
When I was a pre-med student, for some reason the prerequisites required a year of calculus. That succeeded in weeding out people who can't make an A in freshman calculus, but I'm not sure what else it accomplished. Calculus has little to do with the daily practice of medicine, unless you're a radiation oncologist or doing some hardcore research.
A year of statistics would have served me and my patients much better. That goes double, given the current firehose of data that is part and parcel of the personalized medicine revolution.
When I was a pre-med student, for some reason the prerequisites required a year of calculus. That succeeded in weeding out people who can't make an A in freshman calculus, but I'm not sure what else it accomplished. Calculus has little to do with the daily practice of medicine, unless you're a radiation oncologist or doing some hardcore research.
A year of statistics would have served me and my patients much better. That goes double, given the current firehose of data that is part and parcel of the personalized medicine revolution.