Statistical ward round. 16.

Abstract

It is often salutary, although sometimes disconcerting, for a physician to look through his records of previous patients and see whether he would treat them, or even diagnose their conditions, exactly as he did when they were in his care. Whether he would make any changes or not, the records can be instructive to him and to others. I have just been looking through the series of mimeographed "Notes from a laboratory of medical statistics," distributed from 1959 to 1966, which were the progenitors of the Ward Rounds. I was searching for "cases" that have not been mentioned in the Rounds or in the current "Notes on biometry in medical research"—especially for readers' contributions, many of which were to me the most valuable items in the series. They were often contained in informal letters, and in many instances I did not receive permission to mention the writers by name; but I feel that it would be a pity not to let them have a broader and longer, although still anonymous, existence by offering them to readers of the Ward Rounds. This Round will present three of them.