Real-Life Math
The hospital where you work began a mammography screening program
in 2000. A mammogram is an x-ray that detects breast cancer in men and women.
It detects lumps much sooner than a physical examination. Survival rates are
much higher when the cancer is detected early, in stage one. Cancer detected
in stage two has a lower survival rate than stage one. Stage three and stage
four have still lower survival rates.
The hospital wants to know if
their mammography screening program is detecting cancer at earlier stages.
As the cancer registrar, you have the raw figures in your files. The hospital
asks you to make a presentation at the next executive committee meeting. You
will need to explain your data clearly to a number of people from different
backgrounds. There will be physicians, nurses, hospital administrators, and
people from the medical records department.
Going over your records,
you see that in 2000, the hospital treated 866 patients with breast cancer.
589 were stage one; 125 were stage two; 89 were stage three and 63 were stage
four.
Your records show that in 2015, the hospital treated 1217 patients
with breast cancer. 1109 were stage one; 68 were stage two; 25 were stage
three and 15 were stage four. You will present the numbers to the committee,
and will also present your findings in percentages.
You want to tell
your audience the percent change for each stage of cancer since implementing
the program. For example, the percentage change of Stage 1 cancer patients
from 2000 to 2015.