Author Archives: cw520

What should be reported in medical diagnosis and prediction?

Suppose a patient P is informed by a medical doctor that she has a certain disease and that she is expected to survive for two further years. What consequences for her life should P draw from this information? It seems that without further knowledge, she can draw no precise consequences at all.  P has to know how the doctor came to this decision. This is so because of the reference-class problem.

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