One of the top ten greatest doctors in the world looks at the lowly checklist, and how this simple idea - which is free to reproduce - will revolutionise the way we approach problems, and help save lives. Today we find ourselves in possession of stupendous know-how, which we willingly place in the hands of the most highly skilled people. But avoidable failures are common, and the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of our knowledge has exceeded our ability to consistently deliver it - correctly, safely or efficiently. In this groundbreaking book, Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument for the checklist, which he believes to be the most promising method available in surmounting failure. Whether you're following a recipe, investing millions of dollars in a company or building a skyscraper, the checklist is an essential tool in virtually every area of our lives, and Gawande explains how breaking down complex, high pressure tasks into small steps can radically improve everything from airline safety to heart surgery survival rates. Fascinating and enlightening, "The Checklist Manifesto" shows how the simplest of ideas could transform how we operate in almost any field.

About the Author

One of the world's most distinguished doctors, Gawande is a staff writer on the New Yorker, teaches surgery at Harvard Medical School and practises it in Boston, and has advised President Clinton on health policies. He is also advisor to the WHO on surgery. The bestselling author of Better and Complications, he has lectured in the UK and was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.

Reviews

According to the latest World Health Organization international classification of diseases, some 6000 drugs and 4000 medical and surgical procedures are now available to clinicians to manage more than 13,000 diseases and syndromes. Delivering the benefits of all this specialized training and knowledge correctly, safely, and reliably has not been easy. As in his earlier works Complications and Better [LINKS??], Gawande's recurring themes here are the complexity and the imperfections of modern medicine, as well as the ever-present need to strive to do better. He fixes readers' attention on gripping medical stories while building the case for a manageable, sophisticated and yet simple solution to the human, sometimes life-threatening fallibilities that on occasion bring near disaster or worse to a sugical procedure. His answer to tense medical situations where unpredictability reigns: the checklist. In stories from fields as diverse as medicine, aviation, and construction, Gawande persuasively aruges how a diligently applied, studiously produced checklist strategy saves lives. In the last chapter, he shares how the checklist prevented a loss in one of his own surgeries. Verdict The author's many fans will enjoy revisiting his leitmotiv of improving human endeavor. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/09.]-James Swanton, Harlem Hosp. Lib., New York Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

"'It has been years since I read a book so powerful and so thought-provoking... Gawande is a gorgeous writer and storyteller, and the aims of this book are ambitious' - Malcolm Gladwell 'Riveting and thought-provoking' - David Aaronovitch, The Times 'A welcome book... packed with vivid writing, heart-stopping anecdotes and statistical surprises' - Financial Times"

That humblest of quality-control devices, the checklist, is the key to taming a high-tech economy, argues this stimulating manifesto. Harvard Medical School prof and New Yorker scribe Gawande (Complications) notes that the high-pressure complexities of modern professional occupations overwhelm even their best-trained practitioners; he argues that a disciplined adherence to essential procedures-by ticking them off a list-can prevent potentially fatal mistakes and corner cutting. He examines checklists in aviation, construction, and investing, but focuses on medicine, where checklists mandating simple measures like hand washing have dramatically reduced hospital-caused infections and other complications. Gawande gets slightly intoxicated over checklists, celebrating their most banal manifestations as promethean breakthroughs ("First there was the recipe, the most basic checklist of all," he intones in a restaurant kitchen). He's at his best delivering his usual rich, insightful reportage on medical practice, where checklists have the subversive effect of puncturing the cult of physician infallibility and fostering communication and teamwork. (After writing a checklist for his specialty, surgery, he is chagrined when it catches his own disastrous lapses.) Gawande gives a vivid, punchy exposition of an intriguing idea: that by-the-book routine trumps individual prowess. (Jan.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.