Checklist and coaching program in India markedly improved childbirth care but did not reduce death rates
A checklist and coaching intervention to improve facility-based childbirth care and reduce deaths of women and newborns in India achieved significant gains in the quality of care during labor and delivery, but the improvements were insufficient to reduce…
In high-stakes jobs like surgery, the value of checklists
It’s been shown that using a simple checklist can help people like pilots, astronauts, and surgeons minimize errors that can mean the difference between life and death. But convincing smart and skilled people to actually use checklists can…
Is health care a right?
Should health care be viewed as a basic right? Should it be paid for by the government? Or should people be responsible for paying for health care on their own? Atul Gawande, a surgeon and professor in the…
‘Being Mortal’ author on living ‘a good life all the way to the very end’
Atul Gawande appeared on CBS This Morning on September 6, 2017 to speak about the paperback release of his book Being Mortal. In it, he writes about how to start conversations around the care that patients want—and don’t…
Hospital management practices may put women at risk for C-sections, complications during childbirth
For immediate release: July 11, 2017 Boston, MA ─ The way certain hospital labor and delivery units are managed may put healthy women at greater risk for cesarean deliveries and hemorrhage, according to a new study from Harvard…
Senate health care plan threatens the nation’s health
Senate Republicans have proposed a health care bill that would severely cut Medicaid and limit the access and affordability of private health insurance—in spite of clear evidence that health insurance expansions in the past have improved access to…
Health care could worsen under Republican health care bill
Atul Gawande, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of Ariadne Labs, appeared May 7, 2017 on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos to discuss his…
Patients stand to lose under proposed healthcare bill
Atul Gawande, professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, director of Ariadne Labs, and a cancer surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said patients stand to lose significantly…
The benefits of incremental medicine
Steady, personal care by primary care physicians over time can often help people more than intensive interventions such as surgery, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Atul Gawande. In a January 23, 2017 New Yorker…
Helping seriously ill patients discuss end-of-life wishes
A program launched by Ariadne Labs, a joint center of innovation between Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is helping clinicians initiate conversations with their seriously ill patients around their preferences for…