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What are some potential consequences of innumeracy in medicine? How might we prevent it?

What are some potential consequences of innumeracy in medicine? How might we prevent it?

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There are a number of consequences of innumeracy in medicine:-

1. The vital signs of a patient are all numbers viz. pulse rate , blood pressure, respirartory rate and temperature.If the person is innumerate, it will cause the lack of their ability to get them correctly. The life of a person at critical care or at daily wards depends upon proper monitoring of the vitals and resuscitation in cases of emergency.

2. Inability to calculate the dosage of particular medications: Some pediatric medicine and life saving medicines (adrenaline; dopamine ; atropine; oxytocin) dosage required to be calculated and then administered. Innumeracy will result in giving up of inappropriate dose that can lead to ineffective treatment.

3. Difficulty in interpretation of graphs : There are various places that require plotting of the curves and charts for proper monitoring as well as diagnosis , as in spirometry, partography, ECG etc.

4. Innumeracy may also interfere in analyzing the patient and assessment in critical care to reach an appropriate diagnosis.

Prevention of innumeracy in medicine:-

A. Awareness among the students and professional about the importance of numeracy in medicine.

B. Promoting mathematics and teaching them about the core concepts of numeracy in the early years of professional course.

C. Easy teaching methods and interesting classroom programs to develop the interest of the students.

D. Extra credits and incentives to the students attending those classes and to the professionals excelling in the particular course.

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