A few years ago, Gawande wrote two articles in The New Yorker about medical innovation: The Score (about Apgar scores) and The Checklist. Since then, he has done actual research promoting the use of checklists and this book (which I got free from the publisher) is mostly the story of his contribution, with sidebars about the origin of checklists in aviation and their use in building construction. The word checklist suggests that it is all about making sure certain things get done but Gawande takes pains to say that is only half of it. The other half is helping people who don’t know each other work together — by having them introduce themselves and by making sure everyone is heard.
Use of checklists, judging by the results, is a big advance and for that reason alone this would be a solid book — the story of one person’s part in an important innovation. I am sorry he didn’t tell parts of the story that reflect badly on others — such as the Office of Human Research Protections decision that Johns Hopkins research must be stopped immediately because introducing checklists and tracking their effectiveness was dangerous. (Doctors might be embarassed by the results!) I wouldn’t expect a Harvard Med School prof to get nauseous with rage, the way Richard Harris, an earlier New Yorker writer, appropriately did in A Sacred Trust (how the AMA tried to block Medicare), but every story needs a villain. And there are plenty of villains in American medicine.
@Seth
You gotta get this book: Bad Medicine: Doctors Doing Harm Since Hippocrates
https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Medicine-Doctors-Doing-Hippocrates/dp/0199212791/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264921360&sr=1-1
Taleb recommended it, and I have just started it and am totally blown away. Tremendous overlap with the mega-themes of this blog.
Thanks, Patrik. Yeah, it looks really interesting. I’ll get it.
Seth, you say “…this book (free from publisher)…”
As far as I can tell, it is not available for free from the publisher. Am I missing something?
https://us.macmillan.com/TheChecklistManifesto
by “free from publisher” I meant I got it free from the publisher. I have fixed the post to make it clearer.
Hi Seth –
I just recently read the Checklist Manifesto as well. I just wanted to add that in addition to checklists and introductions, the other key thing is the distribution of power on a team (key when nurses are reading the checklists to Doctors). Also the support from the higher ups to enforce said checklists is key.
Great post. cheers.
https://www.expertchecklists.com/
Expert Checklists is a new web app for professionals working in difficult and complex environments. Users can work together to create and discuss very effective checklists for their fields. They can also customize checklists
for their own needs and download in a convenient PDF format . Applications include medicine (for example WHO safe surgical checklist), aviation, adventure sports, and project management. The site was inspired by the book ‘Checklist
Manifesto’ by Atul Gawande.