LAUSR

The attempt to mathematicise the cognitive approach to reality can be traced back to ancient Greek culture. Mathematics is a most powerful cognitive tool, whose potential is evoked by the name itself, asmathesismeans Blearning reality .̂ Actually, and surprisingly enough, reality reveals a peculiar correspondence between this approach and its intrinsic constitutive mechanisms, and the development of a favorable cultural context has disclosed the operative potential of this approach. The link between science and praxis has changed completely our relationship with reality. Mathematization has been a driving element also in the field of medical care, generating levels of progress that have recently involved also the strict clinical milieu. An example of this is the contribution to the definition of risk profile for a given patient to develop a given outcome. In Rheumatology, for instance, the use of diagnostic scores is employed to assess the activity profile of the disease in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) using the 28-joint Disease Activity Score (DAS28) [1], or to calculate the risk of fragility fractures, using the fracture risk assessment tool (FRAX) [2]. The importance of these tools, however, has generated a tendency deserving careful analysis, as it goes beyond a specific medical field, and that, in our opinion, requires a more general evaluation for the possible problems that may ensue. Indeed, this issue evolves in a totally different way and with very specific implications when the approach is automatically extrapolated to the domain of therapeutic decision-making.