Risk is the probability that a hazard will give rise to harm. Risk communication should cover the probability of the risk occurring, the importance of the adverse event being described, and the effect of the event on the patient. As a GP, surgeon or specialist medical professional you frequently have to communicate the potential harms and benefits of different treatment options.
Below are some resources which can help improve your understanding and communication of numbers and information.
The Strange World of Risk Perception, a blog by Alex Freeman for BMJ, 2021
Putting risks into context: covid-19 vaccines and blood clots, another blog by Alex Freeman for BMJ, 2021
How to communicate evidence to patients, a review article by Alex Freeman in Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, 2019
Simple tools for understanding risks: from innumeracy to insight by Gerd Gigerenzer and Adrian Edwards in BMJ, 2003
Strategies to help patients understand risks by John Paling in BMJ, 2003
Perils, Pitfalls, and Possibilities in Talking About Medical Risk by Sidney T. Bogardus, Eric Holmboe, and James F. Jekel in JAMA, 1999
The Blood Test Gets a Makeover by Steven Leckhart in Wired, 2010
Visualising Health an evidence-based resource on how to visualise health data by Brian Zikmund-Fisher and team