Here’s the K-M survival curve from the recent #semaglutide #ozempic paper in non diabetics from the NEJM.
I’m going to teach you how to read a KM curve in a few steps.
First, let’s discuss the deception presented here.
Lincoff AM, Brown-Frandsen K, Colhoun HM, Deanfield J, Emerson SS, Esbjerg S, Hardt-Lindberg S, Hovingh GK, Kahn SE, Kushner RF, Lingvay I, Oral TK, Michelsen MM, Plutzky J, Tornøe CW, Ryan DH; SELECT Trial Investigators. Semaglutide and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Obesity without Diabetes. N Engl J Med. 2023 Nov 11. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2307563. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37952131.
This is actually 2 KM curves superimposed on one another. The honest KM curve is shown here.
If you are reading this correctly, you should be unimpressed. Which is why the authors chose to add a magnified version on top of all that white space.
Here’s what they added. It’s like a photo of the other curve taken under a microscope.
It makes the effects look much bigger (and faster). Which is a fair goal if you are trying to impress…
I take a call from the ER about Miguel McJohsonberg in room 13. While I’m on the phone I open up his chart and start reading his personal business. His labs. His meds. The DC summary of his last admission. …
All the while he has not given me expressed permission. It is a violation.
We all agree to this violation. He bought his ticket. He knew what he was getting in to. …
Twelve hours later he is unconscious and intubated and the surgeons get permission from his friend to disarticulate his left leg at the hip for a necrotizing skin and soft tissue infection. …
(For those who don’t know my schtick, I often start with a controversial statement like this. While it’s true, it’s not the point of this essay. You have to keep reading…)
Your employer is smart.
They know what they sell—completed, signed notes. They need lots of them. Big ones. Procedural ones. It doesn’t actually matter at all who is writing them as long as they are good enough to sell for revenue. 2/x
The one thing your employer does not want is a bunch of expensive grey haired doctors shuffling around caring about stuff. That business model stinks.
The work is slow. They cost of labor is high. Old doctors are finicky. What a disaster.
3/x