How much confidence can we place in clinical evidence?
Channel: pharmaphorum media limited
Date: 22/08/2012

For the supporting article and to add your comments, please visit http://www.pharmaphorum.com/2012/08/22/significance-sigma-clinical-evidence/

Is it so important to reach a 5 sigma level of significance with research findings? Robert Matthews thinks it is and explains the implications on how confident we can be in clinical data if only a 2 sigma level of significance is achieved.

00:15 -- The definition of sigma. 
01:28 -- Why Robert thinks there is confusion around concepts such as 2 sigma and 5 sigma.
06:01 -- Why it is worrying that scientists regard 2 sigma levels of evidence as representing a publishable result.
06:51 -- In medicine, why you would expect the failure rate in replicating results in clinical data to be higher and impact this has on the credibility of clinical evidence.
09:36 -- What can be done to put right the misconception of significance.
11:06 -- How we should change our approach to assessing evidence to ensure that it is more credible?