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Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance Review

Atul Gawande wrote a book about a surgeon's life and work, but it really applies to anyone in all walks of life. We all have an opportunity to improve the way we do things - an opportunity to be more careful, to measure how we do things, to connect with others, and to share our discoveries with others - as I am doing now.

This work opened up insights into how medicine works - which I have only seen up to now from the prospective of a patient or patient's family member. Doctors have unique challenges, but too often they (like the rest of us) just accept the way they have always done things because it is all they know.

As I read this book, I learned how individual doctors made a significant difference in the treatment of difficult diseases, but not only wanting to do better, but by stepping out of the routine to actually do better.

I have a slight criticism with the author's discussion of early detection as prevention - a common error - particularly as we learn their limitations. I wish he focused more on steps we can take that really lower disease and mortality, such as not smoking.

I especially like the five suggestions of the final chapter of the book which I won't list here to let other discover as they read this very worthwhile book.

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance Overview

The New York Times bestselling author of Complications examines, in riveting accounts of medical failure and triumph, how success is achieved in a complex and risk-filled profession The struggle to perform well is universal: each one of us faces fatigue, limited resources, and imperfect abilities in whatever we do. But nowhere is this drive to do better more important than in medicine, where lives are on the line with every decision. In his new book, Atul Gawande explores how doctors strive to close the gap between best intentions and best performance in the face of obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable.
Gawande’s gripping stories of diligence, ingenuity, and what it means to do right by people take us to battlefield surgical tents in Iraq, to labor and delivery rooms in Boston, to a polio outbreak in India, and to malpractice courtrooms around the country. He discusses the ethical dilemmas of doctors’ participation in lethal injections, examines the influence of money on modern medicine, and recounts the astoundingly contentious history of hand washing. And as in all his writing, Gawande gives us an inside look at his own life as a practicing surgeon, offering a searingly honest firsthand account of work in a field where mistakes are both unavoidable and unthinkable.
At once unflinching and compassionate, Better is an exhilarating journey narrated by “arguably the best nonfiction doctor-writer around” (Salon). Gawande’s investigation into medical professionals and how they progress from merely good to great provides rare insight into the elements of success, illuminating every area of human endeavor.

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Customer Reviews

The key to being better? Diligence. - C. Drew Erwin - Boston, MA
Well written book dealing with the medical profession in general and polio in India. Helpful for anyone but especially those in health care.










How to Improve Performance - K. Lisson - Albany, NY
In the book, 'Better,' Atul Gawande, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, offers five suggestions for "becoming a positive deviant."

Ask an Unscripted Question
Don't Complain
Count Something
Write Something, and
Change

Of these five, my favorite is Count Something. By taking charge of quantifying the effectiveness of my work, I can become and experiment of one and find ways to improve my own best performance.

I rely on counting something far more as a runner than I do at my workplace. How can I bring the lessons I have learned in improving my running performance to my job?

This book inspired me with stories of how health care facilities around the world have innovated in achieving their mission of improving performance - of becoming Better.





The cover does not do justice - CHolley -
This book arrived to me in excellent condition. A book's a book, therefore I did not need anything special. I just needed it to get here on time and in tact, which it did.

The content is supported by great amounts of tedious detail which adds to description of the topic for each chapter. Narrowing in on the issue, the author puts himself in a variety of circumstances that the public does not recognize when considering medicine/ Health Care. Not to mention, there is no better person to write about the experiences than this man who has seen so much. The book does not stop at the simple, obvious, up front ideas on medicine in the United States. Rather, it dives into world wide issues and minute detail that come to a solution.

I thought I knew most of it, until I read this book.


*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 08, 2010 08:51:58