A Prescription for Healthier Medical Care Decisions: Begin by Defining 'Risk' - Knowledge@Wharton

'Risk' is a term that comes up frequently when people discuss medicine and health: What's my risk of heart attack? Breast cancer? What's my risk of dying from a complication of surgery? Or having a dangerous reaction to a drug?

But according to Mark V. Pauly, Wharton professor of health care systems, consumers don't necessarily use that term in the same way that medical and insurance experts do -- which is a potential pitfall that can lead to less than optimal health care decisions and faulty policymaking.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1800