Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance by Atul Gawande

Rating: 8 out of 10
Summary: The struggle to perform well is universal: each 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 may be on the line with any decision.

Atul Gawande, the New York Times bestselling author of Complications, examines, in riveting accounts of medical failure and triumph, how success is achieved in this complex and risk-filled profession. From bn.com

My Thoughts: I began this book at 12am last night, read until 3am, fell asleep, woke up at 10am, and finished it about an hour later. I don’t think I’ve ever done that with a non-fiction book before. This was really, really good.

Gawande is an accomplished General Surgeon with many degrees and all sorts of distinguishments from institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford. I quote, from his official website, “He is also Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Associate Director for the BWH Center for Surgery and Public Health. He has published research studies in areas ranging from surgical technique, to US military care for the wounded, to error and performance in medicine. He is the director of the World Health Organization’s Global Challenge for Safer Surgical Care.”

But all of these fancy qualification aren’t the only reason you should read this book. It’s not only well-researched and informative (I feel like I learned so much!) but human and real too. It doesn’t make doctors out to be superhuman heroes, idols we should place on pedestals because of their revered profession, or even horrible, disgusting villains when they make mistakes (such as leaving behind surgical instruments in a patient’s body).

Doctors are human, and as a result, are driven by human ambitions and human emotions. The title of the book, “Better”, is the main focus–better performance, better results, yes, even better payment–but I feel like I was drawn in because of all the fascinating stories Gawande had about his personal experiences with the field of medicine and surgery. It wasn’t just, “I found a lump in her breast. I recommended a biopsy. I excised a 1.2cm cut in Operating Room 3 at 12:42pm.” Every story he had, he provided a history for. The patients were real people, and the doctors were real people.

Worthwhile and entertaining at the same time. Now I must read his first book, Complications.