The historical drama film The Imitation Game is about Alan Turing breaking the German wartime Enigma code. To solve the code, Alan Turing applied Bayes’ approach to probability, which has been termed “the theory that would not die." The Bayesian interpretation of probability reflects the incompleteness of our knowledge and is suited for mastering complexity (1). Bayes’ rule can be described in one sentence: by updating our initial beliefs (about something) with objective new information, we get … [Read more...]
Dare to use your own intelligence
Sapere aude! Dare to use your own intelligence! This is the battle cry of Enlightenment. Immanuel Kant in 1784 Medical doctors are highly intelligent people with immense abilities to acquire knowledge. Through studies at university, regular reading of medical research and learning from their colleagues, doctors become highly knowledgable. Keeping up to date with new research is a somewhat obsessive-compulsive behaviour among many of them. Although new knowledge does not come with a "best … [Read more...]
Patients and clinicians need to know the aetiology of non-communicable diseases
One of the most striking contributions of Hippocrates is the recognition that diseases are only part of the processes of nature, that there is nothing divine or sacred about them. . . [He] remarks that each disease has its own nature, and that no one arises without a natural cause. Sir William Osler (1849-1919) Medical scientific endeavours have unravelled the causes of infectious diseases. Most infectious diseases are transmittable between humans, but some of them are transmitted … [Read more...]