I see what you are aiming at, but the conclusion of clinical trials is almost never that simple.
Yes, that's the problem with study subjects as complex as humans :) My academic background is in educational science and things are even fuzzier there: there never is a simple treatment->result relation because the persons receiving treatment reflect on that treatment, they are an active part in it.
In other words, it won't help laymen in the end.
I think I know what you're meaning, but that's the point where I disagree: In my opinion this is no either/or situation but rather a question of relative amount of insight that can be given to laymen: Currently they will usually understand 0% of the scientific abstract. If we assume that a laymen's version of that abstract loses 80% of the information but is 100% understandable, that would still be a win.
Plus, you don't need that laymen language in the first place. Isn't that the job of journalists who cover scientific discoveries ?
Absolutely, as journalists are already used to do exactly that. In practice the result will probably be exactly that: the institution will have science journalists who will produce these laymen's abstracts.
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Yes, that's the problem with study subjects as complex as humans :) My academic background is in educational science and things are even fuzzier there: there never is a simple treatment->result relation because the persons receiving treatment reflect on that treatment, they are an active part in it.
I think I know what you're meaning, but that's the point where I disagree: In my opinion this is no either/or situation but rather a question of relative amount of insight that can be given to laymen: Currently they will usually understand 0% of the scientific abstract. If we assume that a laymen's version of that abstract loses 80% of the information but is 100% understandable, that would still be a win.
Absolutely, as journalists are already used to do exactly that. In practice the result will probably be exactly that: the institution will have science journalists who will produce these laymen's abstracts.