Where less really is more

The relevance of research findings to the routine clinical setting has been hampered in the past by providing data in a form that has little meaning for the individual patient. If evidence-based practice is ever to work then research findings must be given in a way that they can be applied to an individual patient, and clinicians will have to be able to interpret and use them accordingly. This is the third article in an occasional series to help clinicians in this task. It covers the paramount importance of researchers measuring simple outcomes, whether from a treatment or from a diagnostic test, and analysing them in such a way that a clinician can make sense of them for an individual patient.