Better By Atul Gawande Summary

To: Board of Public Health
From: Jonathan Recalde
Date: 04-26-2017
Subject: Executive Summary
The struggle to perform is felt all over the world. Every person faces hardships such as fatigue, limited resources, and hindered abilities in any profession. However, in the medical field where any mistake can cause a death, Doctors like Atul Gawande strive for greatness to better the world. With this inspiration, Dr. Gawande wrote a book on how to exactly do that.

In the book, Better by Atul Gawande, the author writes about his experience as a surgeon and his trials and deliberations along the road. The author splits up his books three ways, Part 1 is Diligence, Part 2 is Doing It Right, and Part 3 is Ingenuity. Each part takes a certain place and time in Gawande’s career. Each of the stories are breathtaking and very personal as he takes us through his eyes of what can only be described as impossible conditions and choosing the best outcome to better himself and the world.

In Part 1 Diligence,

Gawande infers that diligence can only be achieved by individuals caring and counting, paying attention and minding. In his opening essay, 'On Washing Hands', Gawande notes, shockingly, that bacterial counts on hands range from 5,000 to five million colony-forming units per square centimeter. Using soap and following official guidelines, it is physically impossible to get effective handwashing down to below one minute per patient, which means that even at its speediest, one-third of staff time will be spent washing hands. It's not surprising that medical staff cut corners.

In Part 2 Doing it Right, Gawande goes over what it means to do right by his patients.

He talks about very controversial things such as how much doctors should get paid, what doctors owe to their patients when mistakes are made, when do doctor keep fighting for sick patients and when should they stop.

In Part 3 Ingenuity, Gawande states that “Ingenuity is misunderstood. It is not a matter of superior intelligence but of character.”. (pg. 9) In this chapter Gawande tells stories of people who have transformed medical care through ingenuity. For an example how babies are delivered, and how cystic fibrosis is fought.

Gawande states that the way to succeed in becoming better lies with those three traits, Diligence, Doing It Right, and Ingenuity. Gawande concludes that it is vigilance, counting things, thinking around the edges of what you're doing, coming up with a new way of looking at the problem, caring, admitting mistakes, remaining clear-sighted, looking for

improvement.