• ignirtoq@fedia.io
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    2 months ago

    How would you scientifically measure a difference between those two definitions?

    • Cenotaph@mander.xyz
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      2 months ago

      I mean, say this doctor has a 100% success rate but another doctor has 0%. Those two doctors collectively have a 50% success rate but it you have far better odds with the first doctor than the second

      • TheyCallMeHacked
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        2 months ago

        The two doctors would only have a combined 50% success rate if they perform the same number of surgeries

      • SK@hub.utsukta.org
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        2 months ago

        @Cenotaph Nope, say the first doctor did 100 successful cases, the other did 2 successful and 2 failed, then the collective would be (100+2)*100/104 = 98.07%

        So the number of cases would matter.

        • Cenotaph@mander.xyz
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          2 months ago

          Of course. My point was only that there is definitely a difference between an individual doctor’s success rate and the overall success rate of a procedure across all doctors, responding to the commment I replied to.

        • RogueBanana@lemmy.zip
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          2 months ago

          98.07 for the surgery in general but not if you have decided to go to the first doctor. Then the 50% chance of the second doctor doesn’t not come into the equation, assuming surgery is done by the first doctor who is independent of second doctor. Hope that makes more sense.

    • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      In a statistical regression model, that would be a variable that encodes a specific individual; although encoding hypothetical (the scientific meaning of that word, not the layperson meaning) attributes of that individual is probably functionally equivalent, more useful, and easier to conduct.

      • Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Attributes of the surgeons is not easier, because you need to pick the correct attributes.

        Really you just need an indicator variable showing 1 if its data from the surgeon under analysis and zero otherwise.

        Then test for that indicator variable being statistically larger than 0.