Name: How do we heal medicine?
Uploaded: 2012-04-16T15:28:38Z
Duration: 19 min 2 s
Description: Our medical systems are broken. Doctors are capable of extraordinary (and expensive) treatments, but they are losing their core focus: actually treating people. Doctor and writer Atul Gawande suggests we take a step back and look at new ways to do medicine -- with fewer cowboys and more pit crews.

Our medical systems are broken. Doctors are capable of extraordinary (and expensive) treatments, but they are losing their core focus: actually treating people. Doctor and writer Atul Gawande suggests we take a step back and look at new ways to do medicine -- with fewer cowboys and more pit crews.

How do we heal medicine?

Modern medicine has grown so complex that no single doctor can master every skill or treatment. Despite thousands of new procedures and drugs, patients still face high rates of error and incomplete care—40 percent of heart disease patients and 60 percent of asthma or stroke patients are affected. The secret to better outcomes is not just better specialists or fancier technology, but teams that work like pit crews, using tools like checklists. When hospitals adopted a simple surgical checklist, deaths fell by 47 percent and complications by 35 percent.