A Patient’s Guide to Understanding Risk

This month, we welcome Dr. Yasmine Ali for an overview on understanding risk. Dr. Ali is a board-certified cardiologist who has focused her clinical career on the promotion of heart health and the prevention of cardiovascular disease. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Ali is also a prolific medical writer and educator and President of LastSky Writing, LLC.

In this webinar, Dr. Ali addresses the following questions:

• What is the meaning of risk?
• What is a benefit-risk assessment?
• What is a risk factor?
• What is absolute risk vs. relative risk?
• What is relative risk reduction?

Key Takeaways:

• Risk is an expression of probability (the likelihood of something happening).
• Always ask whether the risk being quoted or presented to you is relative risk or absolute risk
• If relative risk, what are the risk factors that are contributing to the increase in risk? (Often there is more than 1 risk factor to consider.)