Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance | Atul Gawande | A wonderful book, highly recomended

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance | Atul Gawande | Probing Plea For More Objective Performance Standards

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Better: A Surgeon'...

	Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance Atul Gawande Metropolitan Books, 2007 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 80 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A wonderful book, highly recomended

"Better" is a wonderfully written collection of descriptions of people who have been committed to asking a question, implmenting a change, and truly helping many many people. The stories are focused on improvements of health care, which I enjoyed, but are useful for people thinking about and eager to improve any industry or situation.

"Better" is easy to read and I learned from reading this book. This is a great book to pass to your children and colleagues.
RCGoldszer

Probing Plea For More Objective Performance Standards

If you are searching for a physician, how do you go about determining who is the best one to serve your needs? Where is there published data which gives you the opportunity to make rational decisions about your medical care?
I am not a scientist, and when a friend tells me so and so is a great doctor, I translate that to myself to mean my friend likes his/her doctor. How do we judge? Clearly, 50% of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their medical schools. Not that that, in and of itself is a necessary determinant of whether or not someone is a good physician. But what is?
Dr. Gawande uses many anecdotes to show how the nascent science of improving performance amongst medical professionals is the key to longer, healthier lives.
Gawande asks hard questions of his profession, as well as of himself: if he's an average surgeon, should he be trusted with someone's life, or their child's life? Shouldn't we have a right to know how our doctors rate, when there are objective standards that can be applied to performance?
Fairview Children's Hospital in Missouri treats patients with Cystic Fibrosis. The patients who are seen at that hospital, consistently outlive patients seen at other hospitals who have the same condition.
Gawande argues that data, such as that, should be readily available both to patients and their families, so they can make informed choices about their care, but also for doctors so they can improve their own performance.
You will read case after case of how our health care system can improve and has improved. Buy this book for yourself, and pick up an extra one for your doctor.

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Atul Gawande is superb!

Atul Gawande has done a superb job describing the ins and outs of practicing medicine. His account of the work being done and the difficulties that physicians have to face in different situations is very thoughtful and many times touching. The writing flows and the story lines are touching.

Better - A Surgeon's Notes on Perfomance

This was my first book that dealt with medicine as the core subject and talked about perfomance. The average person rarely comes to associate both of these together and for some reason many of us treat doctor's as holier than thou. Dr Gawande raises some very pertinent questions specially in his essay's on the Battlefield and the Cystic Fibrosis - his notes on how the average lifespan of affected individual's(CF) has been rising over the years and how simple changes have made such big difference is very well depicted. His essay on how the surgeons in India were managing patients with such limited resources in such horrific conditions makes you think about the great divide between the resources of various nations - USD 4 in India compared to USD 7911 in US per person.
Finally, its a very short book that should take not more than a few hours to finish, at the end of it, I started thinking will it be innovation, new drug research that will drive future medical advancements or small incrimental changes, ingenuity in the way we treat that will make a bigger impact.

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