Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance

We all recognize that our healthcare system needs work. We all realize that things are falling through the cracks. For all the money our country is paying for health care, for surgeries, hospitalizations, and the such that we're just not getting a good investment for our money.

And his book better, renowned surgeon, Dr. Atul Gawande goes through his personal journey of being a cutting-edge surgeon. How do you always push yourself to be better? How might this help us with our current health care system issue? And what are ways we could change things to get our system to where it needs to be? It just needs to be better.

If you are looking for a book to help you learn some of the issues in our current health care system and get ideas on how you could help, this is a great starting place.

“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 this 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.” Publishers Summary