Atul Gawande TED Talk

Dr. Atul Gawande’s extensive surgical experience, and research for his books makes him an incredibly qualified individual to discuss the issues within the healthcare industry. He addresses many of the questions that doctors, patients, and insurance companies are asking as the world of medicine continues to advance rapidly, for better or for worse. Many of the things Dr. Gawande addresses align well with my preconceived notions of the healthcare field. In both the TED Talk and Dr. Gawande’s book, his discussion of teamwork aligns well with my own view of the healthcare field. His point in the TED Talk that really stuck out to me was when he referenced putting all of the best car parts together and ending up with a piece of junk. This is important
In his TED Talk, Gawande mentions “40 percent of our coronary artery disease patients in our communities receive incomplete or inappropriate care. 60 percent of our asthma, stroke patients receive incomplete or inappropriate care. Two million people come into hospitals and pick up an infection they didn't have because someone failed to follow the basic practices of hygiene” (Gawande 2012). Doctors are seen as all-knowing after their extensive schooling, but now it is impossible for one person to know all that can be known about medicine. Even when doctors do the “right” things, there can still be failures. For example, he discusses a woman with pregnancy sickness that leaves doctors at a loss after prescribing her many different treatments that have worked for others in the past. The hardest thing in my opinion would be to tell a patient that you can’t help them, but that is just what a good doctor must do, in order to not give the patient false hope. Sometimes there is more that cannot be explained by our understanding of medicine, and doctors and patients must recognize that there is no one routine case or foolproof treatment, even for the most simple