Interpretation of data by the clinician.

The cardinal challenges to every practicing physician are to interpret clinical data correctly and to place them in proper perspective. Clinical investigations frequently lack the rigidly controlled conditions and the careful experimental designs usually found in preclinical animal studies, and this deficiency is partially attributable to the inherent complexities of clinical medicine. Consequently, a great deal of controversy results from conflicting interpretations, extrapolations and overextension of limited data that are often equivocal. More careful appraisal of data and increased awareness of the well-known pitfalls found in retrospective and prospective studies, in which biostatistical design and clinical relevance are often incompatible, are emphasized, and personal biases and the flagrant sensationalism expounded by the media are condemned. The clinician is cautioned to sift through the data, consider the benefit/risk ratio for each patient and then to subordinate the role of critical scientist and assume the role of physician, exercising good judgment in light of the existing evidence and the immediate problems at hand.