The Importance of Communicating Risk to Patients

"We are not primed to think in terms of risk. I know I'm not, and I run risk calculators with my patients almost daily," she says. "I like to use a concept called the number needed to treat to help explain risks." The number needed to screen for mammograms is the number who would need to get mammographic surveillance in order to prevent one death from breast cancer. It's the inverse of the absolute risk reduction.