{"id":36964,"date":"2015-01-26T10:59:56","date_gmt":"2015-01-26T15:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=36964"},"modified":"2015-02-10T23:55:18","modified_gmt":"2015-02-11T04:55:18","slug":"better-a-surgeons-notes-on-performance-by-atul-gawande","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/better-a-surgeons-notes-on-performance-by-atul-gawande\/","title":{"rendered":"Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Better<\/a>
\n“This is a book about performance in medicine,” Atul Gawande<\/a> writes in the “Introduction” of his second bestselling title (he’s got four total thus far \u2013 and counting!). “In medicine, as in any profession, we must grapple with systems, resources, circumstances, people \u2013 and our own shortcomings, as well. We face obstacles of seemingly unending variety.”<\/p>\n

If his debut Complications<\/a><\/em> grabbed my initial interest in the jaw-droppingly awe-inspiring Rhodes Scholar<\/a>\/surgeon<\/a>\/professor<\/a>\/MacArthur “Genius”<\/a>\/New Yorker<\/em><\/a>\/TED<\/a>-anointed good doc, Better<\/em> is, well, even better: “…. somehow we must advance, we just refine, we must improve,” he promises. “How we have and how we do is my subject here.”<\/p>\n

Organized in three distinct sections that “examine three core requirements for success in medicine” plus a penetrating “Afterword,” Better<\/i> consists of 12 essays that could each be read as insightful, standalone lessons on sharing and receiving wisdom. For the greatest benefit, of course, don’t miss a single word. If you decide to go audible, narrator John Bedford Lloyd stumbles over foreign names, but otherwise, he knows just when to add urgency for the best effect. We’re talking life and death here \u2013 “lives are on the line,” as Gawande reminds \u2013 so timing matters!<\/p>\n

Part I talks “Diligence,” including washing hands (who knew such a simple, important procedure could be so difficult to enforce?), saving wounded soldiers, and responding to an outbreak of polio on the other side of the globe. Part II examines ways of “Doing Right” in examination rooms, in the court room, in the execution chamber (eek!), and especially the operating room. Part III looks at “Ingenuity,” extolling the successes of the Apgar Score (thank you, Dr. Virginia Apgar!), choosing a program rated “average” by previous data to get the “best” care, and learning unexpected adaptive advances during Gawande’s own two-month tour through India, his “ancestral home,” working in six hospitals clearly so different from his lofty Boston base.<\/p>\n

Gawande’s pithy, astute “Afterword” offers “Suggestions for Becoming a Positive Deviant” that are just five simple actions, but should be a continuously challenging effort toward “how one might make a worthy difference”:<\/p>\n