About this title: The "New York Times" bestselling author examines the complex and risk-filled medical profession and how those involved progress from merely good to great. Gawande provides rare insight and offers an honest firsthand account of his own life as a surgeon.
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Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. 0312427654 Light general wear, but a nice, clean, tight copy. Please compare our ratings and shop with confidence. Member, Antiquarian Book Dealers Association of South Carolina. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2008-01-22
ISBN-13:9780312427658ISBN:0312427654
Description: Like New. Book has slight shelf wear from storage and use, there is a crease to the top front of the front cover; otherwise the book is in very good condition. read more
Edition: First paperback edition
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Picador; Henry Holt and Company, New York
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780312427658ISBN:0312427654
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. x, 273 pp., bib. notes; 21 cm. Near fine. Tight, clean copy. Light shelfwear to wraps. "The New York Times bestselling author of Complications examines, in riveting accounts of medical failure and triumph, how success is achieved in a complex and risk-filled profession. 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 ... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Picador
Date Published: 2008-01-22
ISBN-13:9780312427658ISBN:0312427654
Description: New. New, unread, unused & in perfect condition with no damaged or missing pages. Pre-release book with plain cover and stickers. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Edition: First edition.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780805082111ISBN:0805082115
Description: New in new dust jacket. First Edition, First Print. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 273 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780739487754ISBN:0739487752
Description: Fine as New-clean unmarked and uncreased. 273 p. Ships from US-Midwest. Support Independent Booksellers! Omahabooks offers same or next day shipping-satisfaction guaranteed. APO, International may require additional postage-contact seller. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Date Published: 4/3/2007
ISBN-13:9780805082111ISBN:0805082115
Description: New. Hardback w/ DJ. Enjoyable reading copy for your personal pleasure. This copy is nearly flawless! Dust jacket has barely noticeable shelf wear. You are buying a Book in NEW condition with very light shelf wear to include very light edge and corner wear. Buy it Now! ! ! As always, thank you for buying this book from International Book Source, YOUR ONE source FOR ALL your BOOK related NEEDS. Please remember to CHOOSE carefully how QUICKLY you would like to RECEIVE this material FAST, or ... read more
"Gawande has to be one of the clearest and most compelling writers on the quandaries of modern medical care. I don't think anyone should debate health care reform without reading his essays and books because he connects the personal and day-to-day so well to the global and system aspects of health care.
This book is a collection of essays loosely tied together by the idea of how to improve one's performance. I didn't find the overarching themes to be so strong, but each essay/chapter is a gem of wisdom. And some of them really challenge my own understandings of issues.
The most surprising and challenging chapter to me was about childbirth and the rising rate of Cesareans. I have viewed high cesarean rates as a blatant demonstration of how modern medicine "medicalizes" natural healthy functioning, treats women as objects, and responds more strongly to financial incentives than to evidence of good medical practice. While I still believe that these phenomena hold, Gawande introduced another dimension that I had not considered and which may become the dominant factor in the future. He points out how skilled birth attendance requires training in dozens of procedures - proper ways to use forceps, manipulation related to breech births, etc. - whereas cesarean sections can be standardized. Studies show that well trained attendants using forceps are safer than cesarean surgeries - but how many well-trained attendants are there? In other words, as we drive down the rates of maternal and infant deaths to lower and lower rates, further progress requires techniques that can be standardized to the 99.995%. And it may be easier to standardize surgeries and make them safer than it is to train, screen, monitor, upgrade skilled attendance.
He points out, though, that we have Apgar scores to judge how infants fare after childbirth and nothing comparable for mothers. Perhaps measuring how mothers fare after these different procedures would re-balance the equation.
Gawande doesn't answer the hard questions - sometimes he just makes the questions harder. But in the process, I always learn something new and useful."
"The point of this book, as the title indicates, is to detail how to make the medical profession better, how to save more lives. Dr. Gawande makes a convensing argument that it is not research science that will accomplish this, but more diligent care of the mundane (but necessary) variety. He makes this point best when he talks of his experiences with the Indian health care system. It is easy for them to get expensive, cutting-edge equipment, yet they don't have enough basic supplies like scaples or medicines. In a different context, America has the same problem - we can tackle all kinds of complex illnesses, but we can't figure out how to treat people with basic health problems that don't have insurance. What the argument comes down to, I think, is not to throw money at the health care problem in research and fancy and expensive equipment, but in basic care and treatment and services. I think lots of money should be thrown into research for its own sake (which is why I do research), so that when presented with a problem we can better understand its true nature and make informed decisions, and not just in relation to individual healthcare. But healthcare would improve if people were treated, and not merely the illnesses they presented with."
"The first chapter of this book was on the effect that hand-washing has on infection rates of MRSA and VRE in hospitals. It was fascinating! I never thought I would find twenty pages on hand-washing so engrossing - I have high hopes for this book!
The book got better and better. Proper review will be forthcoming, definitely. But when?"
"I could barely put down Atul Gawande's book on performance in medicine, "Better." Through true accounts that span different fields of medicine, Gawande relates his impressions on where medical practices fail and where they achieve brilliant innovations (often despite incredibly difficult working conditions). There are stories here about combating hospital infections, the WHO's effort to eradicate polio, Forward Surgical Teams in Iraq, basic etiquette for physical exams, medical professionals who have participated in executions of convicts, the malpractice system, and more. This is a broad look at doctors trying to do their best in all walks of the profession, and at times the book is terrifying for a person interested in medicine as a career. Ultimately, however, the tone of the book is very hopeful. We all do the best we can, and Gawande is interested in accumulating the information that can help doctors achieve this goal of perpetual betterment. While I think that medical professionals would benefit from reading this book, I also think that laypersons can get a lot out of these stories, and gain a better understanding of the healthcare system we have as well as healthcare across the globe."
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