Fig. 1.
Knowledge translation decision making is influenced by baseline patient risk. The benefit of an intervention can be described by a relation between the risk of no treatment (i.e., the patient’s baseline risk), the benefit of the intervention (green bars), and the risk of harm posed by the intervention (red bars). As the patient’s baseline risk decreases, the harm of the intervention will eventually predominate over the intervention’s therapeutic benefit. As such, implementation of an intervention aimed at a huge population of low baseline risk is unwise; instead, further study is advised. In contrast, an extremely high-risk population, such as those with acute respiratory distress syndrome, is more likely to benefit from the implementation of a new intervention.