Health Policy Professor Atul Gawande Writes Book on Making Health Care Better, Apr 13, 2007, Harvard Public Health NOW

In 2002, Atul Gawande, a surgeon at HMS and Brigham and Women's Hospital and assistant professor in the HSPH Department of Health Policy and Management, wrote a bestselling set of essays called Complications that provided an insider's look at the American medical system. Now, he has just published a book on improving that system and the care delivered by it.

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

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance (Henry Holt and Company) employs a public health approach to case studies, reflections, and reporting in order to argue for improvements in health care. At the same time, the book recognizes the inherent fallibility of the system and the people within it.

In his introduction, Gawande explains that Better examines three core requirements for success in medicine: diligence, the challenge to "do right," and ingenuity. He uses historical examples, such as the battle to formalize handwashing as a requirement of doctors and nurses, and more recent efforts, such as caring for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. He discusses the ethical dilemmas faced by doctors participating in lethal injections and changes to aspects of medical practice, such as delivering babies, over time.

In addition to his medical practice and public health research, Gawande writes for The New Yorker. Last year, he won a MacArthur "Genius" Award.