I just finished reading Atul Gawande's "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance." The publicity I had heard surrounding it led me to believe that, while this book was specifically about surgery and the way surgeons improve, it might be a worthy treatise on the art of improvement in general. While I didn't find its insights quite that universal there are a few points worthy of reflection. I hasten to point out that, though it wasn't quite what I was expecting, its a good read in its own right, both for the case studies of people in the medical profession who have made strides in improving the outcome of patients to the insiders view of a number of the financial and ethical issues facing modern western medicine. Well worth a weekends effort.
