Atul Gawande Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, my patients will not even be postponed. Another surgeon would step in and take over. The reason to do research and writing is that it at least makes me feel not entirely replaceable. If I didn't write, I don't know if I would do surgery.”

“No one teaches you how to think about money in medical school or residency. Yet, from the moment you start practicing, you must think about it. You must consider what is covered for a patient and what is not.”

“No one looks at your hands to see how much they shake when you are interviewed to be a surgeon. The physical skills required are no greater than for writing cursive script. If an operation requires so much skill only a few surgeons can do it, you modify the operation to make it simpler.”

“You want to ensure people can do it right 99 percent of time. When we have to fire one of our surgical trainees, it is never because they don't have the physical skills but because they don't have the moral skills - to practise and admit failure.”

“Outsiders tend to be the first to recognize the inadequacies of our social institutions. But, precisely because they are outsiders, they are usually in a poor position to fix them.”

“I think the extreme complexity of medicine has become more than an individual clinician can handle. But not more than teams of clinicians can handle.”

“You know, 97 percent of the time, if you come into a hospital, everything goes well. But three percent of the time, we have major complications.”

“This is the reality of intensive care: at any point, we are as apt to harm as we are to heal.”

“Expertise is the mantra of modern medicine.”

“In every industrialized nation, the movement to reform health care has begun with stories about cruelty.”