Better by Atul Gawande: Chapter 6

The focus of this chapter, titled "Piecework," is on doctors' pay and its inevitable connection to the health insurance industry. Gawande develops his thoughts on health insurance further in his New Yorker article on health care costs which was published this summer. Doctors' pay is also informed to some degree by the malpractice lawsuits they face, the subject of the previous chapter.

Better by Atul Gawande: Chapter 5

Titled "What Doctors Owe," the fifth chapter of Better continues the discussion of doing right and focuses on malpractice lawsuits.

Better by Atul Gawande: Chapter 4

The fourth chapter of Atul Gawande's Better moves the book into its second section, titled "Doing Right." This is one of three core challenges Gawande laid out in the book's introduction and which we briefly touched upon in one of our earlier discussions. The chapter is titled "Naked" and concerns the exam room etiquette that doctors and patients expect from one another and often uncomfortably tiptoe around.

Better by Atul Gawande: Chapter 3

To continue the chapter-by-chapter discussion of Better by Atul Gawande, here's a quick overview of Chapter 3: Casualties of War. It covers the efforts of battlefield surgeons in Iraq and Afghanistan to save as many wounded in the wars as possible.

Better by Atul Gawande: Chapter 2

It has been over 2 months since my chapter 1 recap of Atul Gawande's Better. I've delivered very little after chapter 1 and Gawande's bio discusssion a while back. Despite my lack of activity, I have been progressing and feel the book is important enough to continue discussing.

Chapter 2 is titled "Mop-Up" and covers the World Health Organization's efforts to minimize the spread of a polio outbreak in India a few years ago.

Better by Atul Gawande: Chapter 1

I had originally tried to combine the intro and chapter 1 of Atul Gawande's Better, but chapter 1 actually had some of the most profound "wow" moments in the book. The focus is on hand washing, in the context of diligence in the pursuit of excellence. The basic problem is this: doctors don't wash their hands enough, so how do we get them to do it? Much like Starbucks' solution to not wasting milk was pioneered by one of its in-store baristas rather than management, the most effective tactic for hand washing was to outsource the solution to the employees of the hospitals.

Better by Atul Gawande: Intro and Chapter 1

To begin our discussion of Better, by author and surgeon Atul Gawande, I want to begin with Gawande's bio and a review of his article on health care reform

Better by Atul Gawande

I'm trying something new - I am about to begin reading Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande. Gawande is also the author of the New Yorker article on health care costs we discussed a few weeks ago. I want to post updates after each chapter, feel free to read along with me if you like. The intro will be discussed next week.