“Tears wet my eyes. I’m a surgeon. I like solving things. But how do I solve this?” — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
I think the extreme complexity of medicine has become more than an individual clinician can handle. But not more than teams of… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
Doctors quickly learn that how much they make has little to do with how good they are. It largely depends on how… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
People say that the most expensive piece of medical equipment is the doctor's pen. It's not that we make all the money.… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“Medicine’s ground state is uncertainty. And wisdom—for both patients and doctors—is defined by how one copes with it. This” — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“In this work against sickness, we begin not with genetic or cellular interactions, but with human ones. They are what make medicine… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
Just using a checklist requires [doctors] to embrace different values from ones we've had, like humility, discipline, teamwork. — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
The possibilities and probabilities are all we have to work with in medicine, though. What we are drawn to in this imperfect… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
To become a doctor, you spend so much time in the tunnels of preparation - head down, trying not to screw up,… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
Most people are squeamish about saying how much they earn, but in medicine the situation seems especially fraught. Doctors aren't supposed to… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“In other words, our decision making in medicine has failed so spectacularly that we have reached the point of actively inflicting harm… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“One American in seven has no coverage, and one in three younger than sixty-five will lose coverage at some point in the… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
I think we are faced in medicine with the reality that we have to be willing to talk about our failures and… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
We always hope for the easy fix: the one simple change that will erase a problem in a stroke. But few things… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
No matter what measures are taken, doctors will sometimes falter, and it isn't reasonable to ask that we achieve perfection. What is… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“The core predicament of medicine - the thing that makes being a patient so wrenching, being a doctor so difficult, and being… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“Expertise is the mantra of modern medicine. In the early twentieth century, you needed only a high school diploma and a one-year… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“Betterment is perpetual labor. The world is chaotic, disorganized, and vexing, and medicine is nowhere spared that reality. To complicate matters, we… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
We look for medicine to be an orderly field of knowledge and procedure. But it is not. It is an imperfect science,… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“There is a saying about surgeons, meant as a reproof: "Sometimes wrong; never in doubt." But this seemed to me their strength.… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“The problem with medicine and the institutions it has spawned for the care of the sick and the old is not that… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
At times, in medicine, you feel you are inside a colossal and impossibly complex machine whose gears will turn for you only… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
“We want progress in medicine to be clear and unequivocal, but of course it rarely is. Every new treatment has gaping unknowns… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
Our great struggle in medicine these days is not just with ignorance and uncertainty. It's also with complexity: how much you have… — Atul Gawande Copy Share Image
Don’t let yourself be. Find something new to try, something to change. Count how often it succeeds and how often it doesn’t. Write about… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
“Wilson spent several days camped out in one government office after another until she had secured an exemption. Unbelievably, she and her husband cleared… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
What is needed, however, isn't just that people working together be nice to each other. It is discipline. Discipline is hard--harder than trustworthiness and… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
“8. Chapter 4 describes the birth of the assisted-living facility concept (Park Place), designed by Keren Wilson to provide her disabled mother, Jessie, with… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
When we lived in a society where we had large families that lived together, especially in agricultural societies like my grandfather and father grew… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
My biggest fear, that 27 percent of Americans under 65 have an existing health condition that, without the protections of the Affordable Care Act,… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
“..how we seek to spend our time may depend on how much time we perceive ourselves to have. When you are young and healthy,… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
“I cannot pretend he escaped unscathed. The extended period of low blood pressure damaged an optic nerve and left him essentially blind in one… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one’s life, — Atul Gawande Copy Share
“an average of $94,000 during the last year of life with a metastatic breast cancer. Our medical system is excellent at trying to stave… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
“we need practice to get good at what we do. There is one difference in medicine, though: it is people we practice upon.” — Atul Gawande Copy Share
People underestimate the importance of dilligence as a virtue. No doubt it has something to do with how supremely mundane it seems. It is… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
Developing a skill is painful, though. It is difficult. And that's part of the satisfaction. You will only find meaning in what you struggle… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
Just look at the list of who the lowest-paid people are. Pediatricians are at the bottom. You would also look at internists. You would… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
“When Felix came to this crossroads, the orthopedic shoe to drop wasn’t his. It was Bella’s. Year by year, I witnessed the progression in… — Atul Gawande Copy Share
![“Just using a checklist requires [doctors] to embrace different values from ones we've had, like humility, discipline, teamwork.” quote by Atul Gawande](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/892/atul-gawande-1871_checklists_just-using-a-checklist-requires-doctors_2643341.png)
