Reviews

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

hollyejacobs's review

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4.0

One of my favorite medical writer. This gives terrific insight into the health care industry!

michellel123's review

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4.0

I can't believe this guy is a doctor - he is an amazing writer! in this book he looks at different medical dilemmas faced by doctors around the world, and suggests ways that we can study ourselves and learn from mistakes to make our work more efficient and productive.

abbyilynch's review

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4.0

read most of this for class, and it was super fascinating and interesting!!! it was written in a nice easy-to-read style that was a big contrast to mountains beyond mountains that we had to read before. i really liked how it didn’t just focus on surgery but focused on multiple different fields including obstetrics/gynecology!!! definitely both made me scared to be a doctor with all the crazy tales of medical malpractice lawsuits and insurance problems and also excited to help people as a doctor

mpasch's review

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2.0

2.50, a decent book about interesting topics that I unfortunately am not that intrigued by.

akessle2's review

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4.0

Wonderful book...in the vein of Malcolm Gladwell, just not centered on social science. Gawande is an incredible writer and observer of himself, his profession, and the world. This should be at the top of the reading list for medical and MBA students.

adviksh's review

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3.0

More practical and less philosophical than Complications. Gawande’s examples are interesting in a How Stuff Works sense. I didn’t find the insights as striking as the stories. It’s fun to read about what he notices.

biobibliophile's review

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3.0

I heartily recommend this to my doctor friends, and I think they will probably rate this higher than I have. Well-written and with a clear vision to talk about humanizing medicine, Gawande both tells of academic studies and shares his personal experiences about the challenges of being a good doctor and what that even means. I enjoyed the read, but being a medical doctor is just not something I'm all that interested in.

athouse's review

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5.0

This is his best written book. The last chapter and the afterword are phenomenal. Some of the content in the middle is maybe a bit more for laymen than physicians but every physician living should read at least the afterword. It’s perfect.

terrimarshall's review

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5.0

I think I liked this second book by this author even better than the first. Interesting essays on controlling polio outbreaks in India, how surgery during war has evolved so that far fewer injured soldiers are dying, how surgery and hospitals do business in India, how doctors fee schedules came to be, etiquette for examining patients in the office with chaperoned, clothes on/off, etc. An interesting look at many aspects of medicine.

noahbw's review

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5.0

This is an excellent combination of examination of interesting facets of varying elements of medicine, narrative, ethical questions, and reflections on personal and systemic decision making.