NATIONAL BESTSELLER The New York Times bestselling author of Being Mortal and 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 in medicine where lives are on the line with every
decision. In this book Atul Gawande explores how doctors strive to close the gap between best
intentions and best performance in the face of obstacles that sometimes seem insurmountable.
Gawande's gripping stories of diligence ingenuity and what it means to do right by people
take us to battlefield surgical tents in Iraq to labor and delivery rooms in Boston to a
polio outbreak in India and to malpractice courtrooms around the country. He discusses the
ethical dilemmas of doctors' participation in lethal injections examines the influence of
money on modern medicine and recounts the astoundingly contentious history of hand washing.
And as in all his writing Gawande gives us an inside look at his own life as a practicing
surgeon offering a searingly honest firsthand account of work in a field where mistakes are
both unavoidable and unthinkable. At once unflinching and compassionate Better is an
exhilarating journey narrated by "arguably the best nonfiction doctor-writer around" ( Salon ).
Gawande's investigation into medical professionals and how they progress from merely good to
great provides rare insight into the elements of success illuminating every area of human
endeavor.
