"It is significant, Doctor" is one of the weakest sentences a rep can say.
In 2016 the American Statistical Association published a formal statement on p-values, because the misreadings had become so common. Sales conversations are full of them.
- What p under 0.05 actually means:
- If the treatment had no real effect, a result this strong would be unlikely.
- That is all it says.
- What it does not mean:
- It is not the chance that the drug works.
- It does not tell you how big the effect is.
- Significant is not the same as clinically important.
A tiny benefit in a very large trial can be highly significant and still not change a single prescription. A specialist knows this. When a rep leans on the p-value alone, she hears someone who has not read past the abstract.
What to say instead: give the size of the effect, the confidence interval, and what that means for her patients.
“A p-value tells you how surprising the result would be if the drug did nothing. It never tells you it matters.”
Lesson 4 of 11 in Step 3: Knowing the science, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.